NHS cuts are unsustainable

OUR NHS is facing a funding crisis. Patients are waiting hours in A&E. The staffing problem has got worse. Waiting lists have gone up and some hospitals are in financial crisis.

Despite the excellent efforts of healthcare staff, eight years of chronic government underfunding has seen ever increasing pressures on our health services both hospital and community based.

In Newcastle, over the past six months, patients have seen a number of announcements that GP practices will be closing in some of the most deprived areas of the city.

At the Ponteland Road practice in the north west of the city over 3,000 patients have been told they will have to find a new family doctor.

This will have an adverse impact on communities like Cowgate, Kenton and Blakelaw and their ability to make use of primary health care services. It will also put extra pressure on other GP practices, walk-incentres and on Accident and Emergency.

A recent GP survey highlighted that there had been an overall decline in patients’ experiences of family doctor services, with the time taken to get a GP appointment given as the main reason for the dissatisfaction.

In response, the highly respected British Medical Association stated that the results showed the growing impact of unsustainable funding pressures facing GP practices both in Newcastle and elsewhere in the region. COUN STEPHEN LAMBERT, Kenton ward, Newcastle City Council