Plan to give patients in Harpenden & Berkhamsted the right to see a GP within a week

Lib Dems announce five year plan to give patients in Harpenden & Berkhamsted right to see a GP within a week

- A five year plan to give patients in Harpenden & Berkhamsted a right to see their GP within a week or 24-hours if in urgent need will be in the Liberal Democrat General Election manifesto the party has today announced

- Last year 607,777 appointments in East and North Hertfordshire took longer than two weeks to happen, under the Liberal Democrats plans every single patient will have the right to see their GP in seven days

- Harpenden & Berkhamsted’s Liberal Democrats have said that this Conservative government had “abandoned local health services” and called for a “fair deal for this community’s patients”

The Liberal Democrats have (on 24th May) announced that their five year plan to give patients in Harpenden & Berkhamsted a legal right to see a GP within a week or 24-hours if in urgent need will be in their General Election manifesto.

Last year there were 607,777 appointments that took over two weeks in East and North Hertfordshire, equating to 19% of appointments. This included a staggering 174,092 which took longer than a month, 5.4% of all appointments.

The number of disturbingly long waits in East and North Hertfordshire has been getting worse. In 2022, there were 453,107 over two weeks, or 14.9% of all appointments. Last year this shot up drastically to 607,777 or 19.0% of all appointments. 

The Liberal Democrats have said that under their plans, patients will no longer be left waiting for an appointment and risk their conditions getting worse.

The party will deliver the plan by:

- Increasing the number of full-time equivalent GPs by 8,000, half by boosting recruitment and half from retaining more experienced GPs.

- Freeing up GPs’ time by giving more prescribing rights and public health advisory services to qualified pharmacists, nurse practitioners and paramedics.

- Introducing a universal 24/7 GP booking system.

- Removing top-down bureaucracy to let practices hire the staff they need and invest in training.

- Harpenden and Berkhamsted’s Liberal Democrats said that this Conservative government had “abandoned local health services” and called for a “fair deal for this community's patients”. 

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Harpenden & Berkhamsted, Victoria Collins said:

“This Conservative government has driven our area’s local health services into the ground. Thousands of patients in Harpenden, Berkhamsted, Tring and the surrounding villages are facing agonisingly long waits, often in terrible pain whilst waiting to see their GP.

“The Conservative party have proven themselves totally unfit to run our NHS. They have abandoned local health services and it is patients bearing the brunt of their neglect.

“It should not be too much to ask for patients to be able to see their GP when they need to. That is why the Liberal Democrats have committed to a fair deal for this community’s patients and legal right to see a GP within a week.”