Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, speaking in response to leaked reports that struggling GP surgeries could be allowed to fail and close, said:

“This is bad news for struggling GP surgeries and the patients who rely on them.

“Allowing local GP surgeries to fail will only make it harder for patients to get an appointment when 1 in 4 patients already have to wait a week or more, or don’t get an appointment at all. In some areas patients could be forced to travel miles and miles to see a GP.

“It is unacceptable for vulnerable GP surgeries to be allowed to “wither away” and this Tory Government needs to take action to protect those surgeries and the patients they care for.”

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