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General Practice (Northamptonshire)

No. It is exceptionally disingenuous for hon. Members who represent a political party that slashed NHS spending in every part of the country to come here and undermine the massive additional, above-average investment in their communities. We should remember that during the past seven or eight years, that party has repeatedly opposed the additional investment that the Government have chosen to put into the national health service. It is important that we do not mix up the debate about out-of-hours and emergency services provided by GPs with extended hours in terms of evening and weekend opening. Under the previous system, GPs often worked until midnight or 1, 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, and then went back to their practices at 8 am to see patients. That was an unreasonable set of expectations and did not necessarily lead to the best possible, safe patient care. Under the new contracts, GPs were given the option of saying that they no longer wanted to provide emergency or out-of-hours cover, and the PCTs were given responsibility for securing that out-of-hours cover. The argument about extended hours is that because of labour market realities, choice and preference, many patients would like to be able to see their GPs in the evenings or at weekends. That would be more convenient for patients and a more personalised service. That is the next stage in the NHS transformation that the Prime Minister, Lord Darzi and the Secretary of State have spoken about. Having fixed the NHS and rebuilt its foundations, we must now move to a highly personalised service. I find it astonishing that any Member would stand up here and say that patients are not entitled to that and do not want that. Surely we should create an NHS that continues to be increasingly responsive as society changes. Let us not mix up emergency out-of-hours cover with extended hours and more convenience for patients.