Cole-Hamilton focused on GPs as campaigning gets off to a flying start

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton today said that getting people fast access to GPs and a wider range of skilled staff locally will be "at the heart of my party's offer to voters" as he highlighted how the SNP had "brought the NHS to its knees".

Alex Cole-Hamilton took to the campaign trail in Edinburgh West, joining candidate Christine Jardine MP and activists in delivering leaflets and speaking to voters as the team makes a flying start to the general election campaign.

The party's focus on GPs comes as:

• 42% of practices report at least one GP vacancy as they struggle from the effects of a 5% fall in the GP WTE workforce since 2013.
• SNP ministers have paused the GP Sustainability Loan Scheme, plunging 30 practices into a precarious position.
• The Scottish Government makes huge cuts to mental health spending which it admits will hit primary care initiatives, despite 86% of GPs saying they had either ‘insufficient’ access or ‘no access’ at all to a mental health practitioner over a three year period.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

"The SNP government has decimated local health services and brought the NHS to its knees. Getting you fast access to GPs and a wider range of skilled staff locally will be at the heart of my party's offer to voters.

"There was a time you could see your GP at the first time of asking, but that's almost unheard of now. People are ringing their surgeries hundreds of times to try and get an appointment. I've met GPs who have racked up nearly 100 separate contacts with patients in a single day.

"Scottish Liberal Democrats have pushed the government for a strategy to prevent staff burnout and a staff assembly that would listen to clinicians and put them at the heart of government decision making.

"We would also draw on the wider skills that exist in mental health, physiotherapy, pharmacy and more. By putting more of these specialists into local teams we can lessen the load on GPs and get you fast access to the best care.

"Scotland needs governments that won't make empty promises but will get the basics right. Our local champions will be relentless when it comes to getting you the care you need locally.

"It's time for change. Both the SNP and Conservatives have got to go."