NHS waiting lists in England have hit an all time high – more than 7.5 million are waiting for care, with a staggering 54,283 waiting at Somerset Integrated Care Board (ICB). Somerset Labour’s Cllr Leigh Redman said, “This is another damning milestone in the Conservative management of our NHS. With the latest published data shows, as of June 2023 more than 54 Thousand people are waiting for care locally – and truly staggering 7.5 million are now waiting across England. The reality is clear – the longer the Conservatives are in power, the longer people in Somerset, people with real need, in real pain and discomfort, will wait for care. I have heard from more than one member of my community that they have had a hospital appointments moved twice, and have been waiting almost a year to see a consultant!”
General Election Now!
Leigh Redman (Labour, Bridgwater North & Central) is the Leader of the Somerset County Labour group. He added “We need a General Election as soon as possible – the Tories are trashing our NHS but Labour has a plan to build an NHS fit for families in Somerset to rely on. That means a health service that is there when people need it, with fewer lives lost to the biggest killers. We’d start with one of the greatest workforce expansions our health service has ever seen – fully funded by scrapping the non-dom status.”
NHS Waiting list data can be found here:
The detail of Labour’s Mission to build an NHS fit for the future can be found here:
Leigh adds “Labour will create 7,500 more medical school places and 10,000 more nursing and midwifery clinical placements per year. We will allocate a proportion of the new medical school places in under-doctored areas, to address inequalities in access to healthcare– because one of the strongest indicators of where doctors practice is where they train. We’ll also train 700 more district nurses each year, 5,000 more health visitors and recruit thousands more mental health staff. With thousands more staff trained to join the NHS every year, fully funded by scrapping the non-dom tax status, the NHS will have both the doctors and nurses it needs in hospitals and the community based staff it needs to provide care on people’s doorsteps.”