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NHS: Labour and Tory claims on GPs and A&E put to test
Does it really matter whose facts and figures are right? In the end, it is all about perception. The rhetoric for some time now has been that it is difficult to get a GP appointment.
Does it really matter whose facts and figures are right? In the end, it is all about perception. The rhetoric for some time now has been that it is difficult to get a GP appointment.
If this winter has identified anything it is that the health and social care system is not working together as well as it should. Indeed, some less kindly souls might say it’s barely working at all.
A new report by Chief Executive Simon Stevens lays out a way forward for the NHS – but will it assuage concern over the private sector’s role in the health service?
Relentlessly criticised, blamed for the A&E crisis, asked to work longer hours: being a GP just does not have the allure that it once did.
The clamour is growing for something to be done about the NHS – through extra taxes, paying to see your GP, reconfiguring services, better use of technologies, more care in the community.
David Cameron has pledged nine pilot schemes for GP surgeries to be open seven days a week. What has not been addressed is the number of extra staff such a plan would involve.
From April, GPs will become responsible for most of the NHS budget. What happens if family doctors want to refer patients to private firms in which they have a financial interest?