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Harrogate and Knaresborough’s Lib Dem candidate says he completely backs his national party’s pledge to give all NHS patients the legal right to see a GP within a week.

Tom Gordon, the man trying to defeat sitting Conservative MP Andrew Jones who has held the seat for 14 years, said the five-year plan to give patients in Harrogate & Knaresborough right to see a GP within a week was an essential part of their platform.

"Thousands of patients across North Yorkshire, including here in Harrogate and Knaresborough, have been facing agonisingly long waits to see their GP thanks to this Government,” said Mr Gordon.

"The Conservative party have proven themselves totally unfit to run our NHS.

Lib Dem candidate Tom Gordon, the man trying to defeat sitting Conservative MP Andrew Jones in Harrogate and Knaresborough, said the five-year plan to give patients in Harrogate & Knaresborough right to see a GP within a week was essential. (Picture contributed)

“It should not be too much to ask for patients to be able to see their GP when they need to.”

Under leader Sir Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrats have said that under their plans, patients would no longer be left waiting for an appointment and risk their conditions getting worse.

Delivery of the plan will include:

Increasing the number of full-time equivalent GPs by 8,000, half by boosting recruitment and half from retaining more experienced GPs.

Freeing up GPs’ time by giving more prescribing rights and public health advisory services to qualified pharmacists, nurse practitioners and paramedics.

Introducing a universal 24/7 GP booking system.

Removing top-down bureaucracy to let practices hire the staff they need and invest in training.

Harrogate & Knaresborough's Liberal Democrats claim that last year 671,292 appointments in North Yorkshire took longer than two weeks to happen.

This, they say, included a staggering 222,398 which took longer than a month, 7.3% of all appointments.

The number of disturbingly long waits in North Yorkshire has been getting worse.

In 2022, there were 505,768 over two weeks, or 18.1% of all appointments.

Last year this increased to 671,292 or 21.9% of all appointments.

Tom Gordon said: "It’s time we had a fair deal for this community’s patients.

“This election is a once-in-a-generation chance to kick the Conservatives out of power."

Lib Dems’ NHS data was sourced from the House of Commons Library.

Harrogate Lib Dem candidate backs five-year plan to give all NHS patients the right to see a GP within a week