The Health Secretary, We Streeting, said he will not back down on plans to modernise GP appointments despite strike threats yesterday at the Labour Party Conference (30.9.25).
Wes Streeting says NHS patients have been trapped in ‘the last century’ for too long.
Wes Streeting has said GPs cannot “cling on to outdated systems” after doctors indicated they could strike over plans to overhaul the way in which appointments are booked.
The Health Secretary said he would not back down in a dispute with union members over changes to allow all patients to go online to request a GP appointment.
However the doctors’ union, the British Medical Association (BMA), is in revolt over the changes, saying there are insufficient safeguards in place to stop practices from being overwhelmed by patients.
Mr Streeting said the “simple but transformative change” would put patients first and end the 8am scramble to get an appointment.
He said that, for far too long, patients had been left at the mercy of systems “designed for the last century”. He wrote:
While we’ve all been booking holidays, ordering groceries, and managing our banking online for years, too many parts of our health service have clung to outdated systems.”
Note. The BMA have a long history of trying to block change in the NHS (that does not suit the doctors). Famously, they even tried to block the formation of the NHS.
