Cameron Is Promising A 'seven Day Health Service' Could His Coalition Partners Have Been Holding Him Back From...

[sandyRoe]

...providing this during his last five years in office?

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/18/cameron-seven-day-health-service-nhs-pledge-conservatives

[Khandro]

I don't see any reason why at least some doctors should not be available during the weekends, (with time in lieu). Millions of people work Saturdays, and one third of NHS doctors are from overseas and don't necessarily feel that the 'English Sunday' is sacrosanct.
Many of the fatalities occurring at the weekends distort the facts. I heard from a surgeon that often the most difficult and life-threatening operations are scheduled for Fridays in order to have a time-buffer of the weekend in case of complications and often these operations are sadly not successful.

[mikey4444]

Just where are the staff going to come from, for this 7 day opening ? My GP's practise has been trying recruit a third Doctor for over 2 years, and haven't managed it.

There is a lot of xenophobia on AB about "foreigners" working in Britain. If we are to have 7 day working in our Hospitals, many more nurses, Doctors, orderlies, cleaners, etc are going to be required. Our own dole queues aren't able to provide them at the moment, so the only way forward for daves new vision is to import more skilled people from abroad.

[Jomlett]

David Cameron has promised to make the NHS the world's first 'seven day health service'.

That's quite an ambitious target for waiting times!

[sandyRoe]

How will he get the consultants to give up their weekend golf, or whatever? I suppose he could try that once successful method of stuffing their mouths with gold.

[mushroom25]

in Stafford, they can't even provide a health service that operates all day, never mind all week.

[Bazile]

The health secretary - Jeremy Hunt was this morning interviewed on Radio 4 - Today Programme .

Despite being asked the question over and over again - where Cameron is going to get the extra gp's ( no one , it seems wants to go into GP practice ) - he continually sidestepped the question .

It's all very well making these promises - the reality is all very different

[hellywelly4]

Labour caused this problem in the first place when they offered the GPs a new contract which meant they didn't work overnight or at weekends. He is only attempting to restore thing to how they used to be, and I hope he succeeds.

[naomi24]

This is being trialled with some success and is working by practices sharing the workload as well as records.

//A total of 1,100 practices have subsequently signed up - one in eight - although only just over a quarter of those have actually got new projects up-and-running currently.

Nonetheless, the Conservatives have been so impressed by the success of the schemes that they now want to extend them and provide everyone with access to GP services seven days a week by 2020.//

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-29424713

Mikey, //Just where are the staff going to come from, for this 7 day opening ?//

//Ministers have already announced an extra 5,000 GPs are being trained, while Labour said it would recruit an extra 8,000.//… so rather more ambitious.

Give it a chance.

[chaptazbru2]

'Give it a chance' ! We've got no choice, we're stuck with this pasty fop for the next five years !!!

[mikey4444]

Naomi...the Tories have had 5 years to recruit more doctors and nurses, in order to fulfill dave's previous promise in this area, so please forgive me for being a tad cynical.