WATCH: Labour bonus scheme for GPs branded a 'smokescreen' by Richard Holden

GB News

Labour's new plan to slash NHS waiting lists has been branded a "gimmick" by Shadow Paymaster General Richard Holden, claiming that GPs are "crying out for support" from the Government.GPs in England will receive a £20 payment each time they avoid referring a patient directly to hospital under a new Government scheme aimed at cutting waiting lists.FULL STORY HERE.

Transcript

00:00What are we to make of this move by the government to reduce hospital waiting lists

00:05by apparently spending £80 million giving GPs bonuses

00:11so that when they don't refer people to secondary care?

00:15Now, is this something which is a sensible way of looking at this?

00:21Getting those numbers down, making sure people are sent in the right direction

00:25rather than just very easily put on a list and sent to hospital?

00:30I'm afraid... Look, I don't know any GP who refers people to services

00:36that they don't need and don't require, right?

00:39On the flip side, of course, I don't want to see...

00:42I want some sensible moves in that direction as well if there are possible ones.

00:47I think this is a smokescreen, though, if I'm totally honest.

00:49We all know that GPs who have come to my surgery in the last few weeks and months

00:56have all said they are not being compensated for the national insurance tax rise,

01:01which is absolutely hammering GP services up and down the country

01:04and it's costing them hundreds of millions of pounds.

01:08So this money here is just an absolute drop in the ocean

01:11as to what the government is already forcing them to pay out.

01:14And you know what that means?

01:15It means that the moment that GPs are going to have to restrict services

01:18or cut back on staff like receptionists and other things

01:22who are absolutely those front-line actual NHS workers,

01:25you know, ensuring people can get appointments,

01:27they're going to have to cut back on that

01:29because of the national insurance tax that Labour has imposed.

01:31That national insurance tax is hitting businesses

01:33which actually create the wealth in our country to fund our public services

01:37and it's also hitting the public services,

01:39like our GPs, like our schools,

01:41and both have got in touch with me to say

01:43all the money that's been provided by the government

01:45to initially compensate them for the rise in national insurance isn't enough

01:49and they're going to have to cut back on staff as a result of it.

01:52I just think it's a...

01:54I think it feels to me like a gimmick

01:56when the GPs are really crying out for proper support.

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