David Oliver: Coffey’s inadequate plan for health and social care

GP leaders have criticised new health secretary Thérèse Coffey’s NHS plan as no more than “minor tweaks” that will make “no tangible difference” to patients.

The Our plan for patients policy document published on 22 September1 outlined how Coffey—who took on the role at the beginning of September—plans to tackle the NHS and social care crisis which has seen record waiting times,2 ambulance delays,3 and falling GP numbers.4

According to the plan, all patients will be given a GP appointment within two weeks and urgent patients will be seen on the same day. It has also promised to make 31 000 more phone lines available to practices and to publish practice level data on appointments provided and wait times.

Notably the plan did not tackle workforce planning. “We will design and deliver our long term workforce plan in the future,” the document finished.

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