Member

Any patient using the NHS can see the waste and inefficiency in the service when they use it. Staff feel it holding them back every day. When the Government announced significant investment in the Budget, I said that it would come with reform, so that every pound was well spent, and here it is. Resources will be diverted from hospitals to GPs, to get hundreds of thousands more patients cared for faster in the community. Patients will have the choice of whether they want or need follow- up appointments, saving a million pointless appointments a year. GPs will be able to refer patients directly for tests and scans, cutting out the middleman and speeding up diagnoses for patients across a wide range of conditions. For years, restaurants have been texting customers reminders of their bookings, giving them the chance to cancel or rearrange, to cut down on no-shows. The NHS will learn from the hospitality sector, do the same for patients, and cut around a million missed appointments every year as a result.