Simon Lightwood MP: Labour have a plan to fix our NHS

Simon Lightwood MP writes: I am delighted that it will remain in the city centre, at a new location, with the opportunity to provide an enhanced service for patients.

The closure of Wakefield’s walk-in centre would have left a healthcare black hole in our city.

It could have prevented some of Wakefield’s most vulnerable residents from accessing necessary support, including those already struggling to access GP appointments.

I would like to pay tribute to all those who campaigned to keep the centre open including all those locally who signed my petition.

After 13 years of Tory cuts to our health service, saving our walk-in centre has never been more important.

Let’s make no mistake about it, our NHS is on its knees.

The NHS is personal to me. Before I was elected as Wakefield’s MP, I worked in the NHS for several years.

I saw first-hand the reality of the crisis facing our NHS and our heroic NHS frontline staff.

Every day, I hear heartbreaking stories from Wakefield, Horbury and Ossett residents trying to access care and support from an NHS that is struggling to survive.

Whether that be 14 hour waits in A&E, elderly patients unable to get a GP appointment, or ever-growing waiting lists for operations and mental health support.

The latest national GP appointment survey data found that only 51.2 per cent of patients, when they last tried to get a GP appointment, secured one at a time they wanted or sooner.

This is the lowest level in five years and a damning indictment of the Conservative’s record.

Wakefield – and the country – deserves better.

Tory policies have simply been papering over the cracks, rather than dealing with the underlying, long-term problems in our NHS. But there is an alternative.

Under Labour, we have a plan to fix our NHS.

We have a plan to boost recruitment and cut waiting times so that in the future everyone will have the certainty that when they need the NHS, it will be there for them.

We will expand our NHS bringing a neighbourhood health service in every community with better access to GPs.

This will take pressure off our A&Es and end the 8am scramble to get a GP appointment.

Labour will expand our workforce, utilise innovative technologies and give the NHS the proper funding it needs.

We will do this by doubling the number of district nurses and train 5,000 more health visitors expanding our capacity and taking pressure off A&Es.

We will create 7,500 medical school places and train 10,000 more nurses and midwives a year, creating a long-term solution for our NHS workforce.

This is a plan that will set a clear direction for the NHS in Wakefield, to build an NHS that is there when you need it.

We won’t just preserve our NHS; we will create a health service fit for the future.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​