New health service plan features in media coverage ahead of Ed Davey’s “conference” speech

To replace the missed media coverage from the leader’s speech at the cancelled Brighton conference, Ed Davey is giving a speech this weekend and, as is usual for conference speeches, some of the content is being trailed in advance.

Hence the big story in The Independent, which reports:

Patients [in England] would be legally entitled to see their GP within seven days – or 24 hours in urgent cases – under plans drawn up by the Lib Dems.

This right would be enshrined in the NHS constitution, meaning the Government and health service would have a duty to observe it, the party said.

The move would be achieved through increasing training places for GPs, changing pension rules in a bid to curb early retirements, and encouraging people to return to the health service through a recruitment drive.

Ed Davey will be talking more about this in his replacement conference speech on Sunday, something for which the media run-up has already been going very well:

Other coverage has included an interview with the Daily Mirror – Lib Dems ‘can still oust Blue Wall Tories – despite Boris Johnson’s departure’ – and another write-up of the health policy from the BBC: Lib Dems promise right to see a GP within a week.

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