15% of patients currently have to wait over a week for GP appointment
Labour leader Ed Miliband has pledged that that all NHS patients in England will get an appointment with a GP within 48 hours.
Urgent cases would be able to get consultations on the same day. The proposed scheme would cost approximately £100m, with the funding coming from savings in other areas of the NHS.
Seeing more patients
Speaking on a visit to a hospital in Crewe, Cheshire, Mr Miliband said “What we’re promising is that everybody should get a same-day consultation with their GP surgery and, if they’ve got an urgent situation, see a GP – and then a guaranteed appointment within 48 hours.”
Conservative representatives have remained skeptical over these promises, claiming “This is an unfunded, pie-in-the-sky policy that Labour can’t pay for and doctors can’t deliver. The real solution is less micromanagement and more GPs, something we’ve already committed to.”