Figures released this week show that 10,541 people in Leicester faced a wait of 28 days or more to see a GP in October alone. A further 22,691 people had to wait more than two weeks. Almost two million people in England had to wait more than 28 days in October, while a further 4.3 million had to wait more than two weeks. 

The fact that patients in Leicester and across the country are finding it impossible to see a GP when they need to is a damming indictment of 12 years of Tory failure on the NHS. 

Labour has a plan that will see patients guaranteed a face-to-face appointment with a GP if they want one. We would:

·         Double the number of medical school places, training 15,000 new doctors a year

·         Train 10,000 additional nurses and midwives every year

·         Double the number of district nurses qualifying each year

·         Train 5,000 new health visitors

This would be paid for by abolishing the non-dom tax status, which allows some wealthy people who live in Britain to pay their taxes overseas. 

You can see coverage of this story in the Leicester Mercury here.