It's election time! Watch as Cameron cosies up to the NHS

SOURCE GUARDIAN: GP access seven days a week by 2020 ‘guaranteed’ under Tories – Cameron

Access to a GP seven days a week by 2020 would be guaranteed under a Tory government, David Cameron will announce on Tuesday, backing the measure with a £100m fund. Labour has made a separate commitment to guarantee GP access within 48 hours. The prime minister’s announcement is designed to give a clear commitment that all NHS patients would be able to see their GP between 8am and 8pm, seven days a week. The government in April launched a seven-day-a-week-access pilot scheme costing £50m and covering 7.5 million patients in 1,195 practices. An additional £100m wave of access pilots is to be launched in 2015-16, culminating in a nationwide scheme costing £400m over the next five years. The promise, which is due to be announced by David Cameron in a round of broadcast interviews, is the Conservatives’ response to Ed Miliband’s claim that only Labour could save the NHS from privatisation and cuts. Cameron said: “People need to be able to see their GP at a time that suits them and their family. We will also support thousands more GP practices to stay open longer – giving millions of patients better access to their doctor. This is only possible because we have taken difficult decisions to reduce inefficient and ineffective spending elsewhere as part of our long-term economic plan. You cannot fund the NHS if you don’t have a healthy growing economy.”

SOURCE TELEGRAPH: GPs' leader says waiting times are a national disgrace

Increasingly unacceptable waits for an appointment risk illnesses not being detected rapidly enough and chances of treating them quickly being missed, said Dr Maureen Baker, chairman of the Royal College of GPs. She spoke out as NHS figures revealed that one in six patients had to wait at least a week before they see a GP or practice nurse. A total of 58.9 million patients in England will have waited for a consultation for a week or more by the end of 2014, up almost 50 per cent from the 40m who waited that long in 2013. In mid 2011 the proportion of patients waiting at least a week was 13 per cent, rising to 14 per cent by the end of 2013 then reached 15 per cent in mid 2013 and then 16 per cent in July, according to the GP patient surveys. “Even more worrying is that we have no way of finding out how many patients decide not to see treatment because they cannot get an appointment which means we might be missing opportunities of detecting illnesses at an early stage or preventing them happening,” said Dr Baker.

OUR RELATED STORIES:

Cuts to the NHS, Military, the Courts, Prisons, Benefits, Passports... Will fixing the chaos end up costing more than the cuts saved?

Graphs at a glance: The UK has the worst investment record of the 27 EU nations

So the Giant NHS Database Care.Data has been postponed. Is that a good thing?

Liebrary: PFI saves us virtually nothing, if you believe the NAO’s figures. If you believe the Commons Treasury Committee, it costs us a vast amount that nobody has yet quantified

Graphs at a glance: how cuts have slashed the number of available hospital beds since 1987

House of Lords refuses to block bill forcing NHS to tender services, and taking away their right to reject dodgy providers