Kate Kniveton MP commented:
Today, the new Health Secretary, Dr Therese Coffey, outlined the Government’s strategy for improving access to healthcare and treatment.
The new Plan for Patients focuses on the healthcare issues that I know matter to residents, prioritising Ambulances, Backlogs, Care, and Doctors and Dentists. This will be done by improving patients’ access to GP practices, recruiting additional support staff, giving pharmacies powers to prescribe more medicines and delivering additional appointments to help patients get the care they need.
There is much to welcome in the new Plan including allowing pharmacies to take referrals for minor illnesses. This is something I have been calling for in Burton and Uttoxeter, particularly in Uttoxeter where patients may have to travel further for care. This will help to reduce NHS waiting times for patients in hospitals and it is estimated to help free up to two million GP appointments each year.
I have also been communicating regularly with West Midlands Ambulance Service and local NHS Hospital Trusts to raise residents’ concerns about ambulance waiting times. Under today’s Plan, they will be able to recruit more call handlers to get ambulances out more quickly to those in urgent need of medical attention.
As a constituency MP, I know the differences that patients experience vary from GP practice to GP practice, as well as with dental surgery to dental surgery. Today’s Plan sets out universal expectations for care delivery and what interventions and measures it will take with the NHS to achieve this. I have previously raised concerns about access to dentists locally so it is welcome that the Government is engaging with the dentistry profession to make contractual changes that will allow for an expansion of the workforce at a quicker pace.
The winter is always tough for the NHS and its hard working staff, but it is welcome that the new Health Secretary and her team are taking action now so that patients can get the care they need and that progress is being made on the forthcoming workforce plan.
I look forward to continuing to work with health professionals in East Staffordshire to continuously improve access to healthcare locally and ensure that residents can get the help they need as quickly and as locally to them as possible.
