Our GP service a disgrace, says MP

The South West is lagging behind other regions in the number of doctors it can recruit, according to Bath MP Wera Hobhouse.

Research from the House of Commons Library, commissioned by the MP’S Liberal Democrat Party, shows that the South West is not recruiting as many GPS as other regions.

Mrs Hobhouse challenged Health Secretary Steve Barclay over what she said was the Government’s failure to properly address the crisis befalling GPS.

During a debate on the NHS workforce crisis, she suggested that there needed to be a reworking of the health system to relax the pressures on GP surgeries.

The research was said to show that in the Integrated Care Board of Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire, wait times had risen by seven per cent in the last year alone.

During her challenges to the Health Secretary, Mrs Hobhouse suggested that there needed to be a reworking of the health system to relax the pressures on GP surgeries.

According to the MP, the Government’s failure to invest properly in primary care in old people’s homes and the community meant people were either forced into surgeries or casualty department waiting rooms.

Sheb said this only serves to clog up the system and these delays are what leads to the acute pressures.

At the same time, the research also showed that wait times were above the national average within the region.

Mrs Hobhouse said: “Our region is being left by this Conservative Government to fend for itself.

“For one in every four people to be waiting more than two weeks to be able to see their GP is frankly disgraceful.

“The Government has let our NHS and country down. We will not forget it come the next election.”