Political opinion with Peter Lamb MP: Building an NHS fit for the future

The move represents the first step in the wider transformation of health services, delivering a more effective and efficient NHS, with a reduction in superfluous layers of management.

Since returning to Government, Labour has already delivered—well ahead of schedule—upon the pledge to provide an additional two million appointments for NHS patients, and resolved industrial action within the health service.

As a result, last month also saw a landmark accord between the Government and General Practitioners designed to ‘fix the front door’ of the NHS and see the return of the family doctor. The deal will slash red tape and box ticking targets to free up GP time, it begins the process of ending the 8am scramble for appointments, and is backed by the biggest funding increase for GPs in years.

The new GP contracts will drive through the modernisation of surgeries, enabling patients to request appointments online throughout all working hours from October, freeing up phone lines for those who need them most and better enabling practices to triage patients based upon genuine medical need.

The Government’s Plan for Change, building on the work of the expert-led Darsi report into the future of the NHS, places GPs at the centre of its plans for improving health services, enabling patients to gain easy access to GPs as the most effective and lowest-cost entry point to health services.

After years of decline, from 1997 to 2010, the last Labour Government restored the NHS to the top of global league tables, having inherited it from its second-worst condition in its history. In just eight months, the new Government has already demonstrated its commitment to saving our National Health Service from the worst condition in its history.