Metro Mayor Dan Norris addresses the need for more GPs: 8,900 Bath and NE Somerset residents a month are unable to book a GP appointment when they want one with the overall numbers in England doubling in a year, a damning study suggests. Hundreds more locals are left waiting over a month to be seen, potentially forcing them to overcrowded A&Es or leaving them at risk of serious diseases being diagnosed too late, according to the analysis of official NHS figures by the Labour Party. When the Conservatives first entered government, they scrapped the guarantee of a GP appointment within 48 hours. The Government meanwhile is failing to meet its manifesto pledge to recruit more GPs. Separate figures from the NHS reveal that there are 4,600 fewer GPs today than in 2013. The findings come as MPs prepare to vote on a motion proposed by Labour to abolish the non-dom tax status to pay for training a new generation of NHS staff - including doubling medical school places to train 15,000 new doctors a year. Responding to the sobering stats, Metro Mayor Dan Norris said: “It’s a real struggle for Bath and NE Somerset residents to see their GP when they need to right now - people are spending hours and hours on the phone before being told nothing is available for weeks and weeks. This has knock on effects all over the place. Not getting timely appointments means people wasting their time by sitting for hours and waiting in pain which means conditions worsening and more time off work to recover - all of which is bad for economy and even worse for local people on the receiving end.

“When I was an MP in the last Labour government, I was proud that we guaranteed a GP appointment within 48 hours. Twelve years of Tory failure to train the staff our NHS needs has left us where we are - patients are paying the price. Labour will train a new generation of doctors and nurses, paid for by abolishing non-doms. We need more GPs, more doctors and more nurses - not non-doms”.

Wera Hobhouse, MP for Bath, also commented on the GP waiting times: “Our region is being left by this Conservative Government to fend for itself. First our communities have been made to endure exceptionally poor ambulance response times and now the lack of support for our GP services is also revealed.

“For 1 in 4 people to be waiting more than two weeks to be able to see their GP is frankly disgraceful. The Conservaitve Government’s consistent short termism and lack of long term workforce planning has led us to this point. They have left us with a broken care system and what promises to be one of the most challenging winters on record for our NHS.

“It is not just patients who are being let down but also all the staff inside GP surgeries. A lack of Government resources and support means they do not have the tools they need to help people at the speed they would like. It results in them getting unwarranted abuse from frustrated patients when they should be praised for their tireless efforts to look after us. The Government has let our NHS and country down. We will not forget it come the next election.”