Plymouth Labour says the Conservative Plan for Patients announced today shows the new health secretary does not grasp the scale of the problem in primary care.

Plymouth Labour’s spokesperson for Health, Cllr Mary Aspinall, said it was clear Thérèse Coffey does not properly understand what the situation is on the ground in places like Plymouth.

“Today’s announcement has little detail or evidence of a plan and that’s what we need to see to understand how this will improve things for people in Plymouth,” said Cllr Aspinall.

“A pledge to guarantee a GP appointment in two weeks is really nothing to be proud of when the last Labour government gave patients the right to see a GP within two days and, in any event, Ms Coffey is already backtracking by saying this is merely an “expectation”.

“Today’s announcement has been met with derision by the Royal College of GPs and I can see why – there is a chronic shortage of GPs and other healthcare and social care professionals and Ms Coffey has not addressed how she will tackle that.

“The plan to shift responsibility to community pharmacies is also ill-thought out since we are losing community pharmacies across the city. Pharmacists have been undertaking this role to ease pressure on primary care but are facing resourcing issues as well.”