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NEW TUC research lays bare the critical state of England’s GP crisis today as tens of thousands rally in London to mark the 70th birthday of the NHS.
All 44 of the sustainability and transformation partnership (STPs) into which NHS England is divided are running with a shortage of GPs, the TUC found.
And half of them have at least 20 per cent fewer GPs than local populations require.
Milton Keynes, Bedfordshire & Luton STP has the largest shortfall, with 43 per cent fewer GPs than needed.
Even the best-provided area, Dorset, is still operating at 4 per cent below a safe level.
The TUC said that the widespread and often severe GP shortages are the result of chronic under-investment in the NHS.
Health economists at the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Health Foundation estimate that the NHS will need 4 per cent extra for each of the next five years to keep running at current service levels, and 5 per cent extra per year to be modernised.
PM Theresa May this month pledged to give the NHS around £20bn more a year extra by 2023/24 – an increase of around 3.4 per cent, although the public accounts committee has cast doubt on the source of this funding, which the prime minister said would come from a “Brexit dividend” and unspecified tax rises.
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The best medicine for the NHS is the extra funding it needs. But the government is giving it too small a dose to bring it up to full health.”
Ms O’Grady will join tens of thousands of people in London fighting for the future of the health service before it celebrates its 70th birthday on July 5.
She will speak at the start of the rally outside BBC HQ in Portland Place, where demonstrators will form up at noon before a march to Whitehall.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who will address the post-march rally, said: “It is almost 70 years since the NHS was founded by a Labour government and it’s still our proudest achievement.
“What the Conservatives have done to our NHS, first under David Cameron, and then Theresa May, is appalling.
“Deliberate underfunding of services, and squeezing the pay of our brilliant doctors, nurses and health staff, has pushed our NHS to the brink.
“Every day there are shocking stories of unacceptable waiting times, ambulance delays and patients left on trolleys in corridors, and they've spent years selling off and contracting out our NHS bit by bit, leaving the NHS to be sued by private companies like Virgin.
“Labour will end privatisation because our NHS should be about healthcare for all, not profits for a few.”
He said the extra cash announced last week “would barely keep the NHS at a standstill” after “eight years of slashed budgets and worsening standards.”
Speakers at BBC HQ will include John Lister from Health Campaigns Together, Tony O’Sullivan from Keep Our NHS Public, National Pensioners Convention and Disabled People Against Cuts representatives, shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon and People’s Assembly co-chair and Green Party deputy leader Amelia Womack.
The rally at Whitehall will have speeches from shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth, Cecilia Amin from the Royal College of Nursing and People’s Assembly national secretary Sam Fairbairn.
In Scotland, Mr Corbyn joined Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard yesterday at an NHS rally in West Lothian.
He drew attention to the closure of the children’s inpatient ward at St John’s Hospital and the shutting of a GP practice in Stoneyburn.
He reiterated Labour’s 2017 general election pledge to deliver an extra £3 billion a year by 2022 for the Scottish government via tax rises for businesses and the wealthy.
