Portsmouth health services are at 'breaking point' warns city council leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson
PORTSMOUTH’S council leader has warned that healthcare services in the city are reaching ‘breaking point’ following the recent launch of a radical plan to bolster the city’s low number of GPs.
Tabled by the Liberal Democrats, who are in charge of the council, the plan will see the city council directly employing doctors in a bid to end the island’s NHS ‘postcode lottery’.
Councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson, leader of Portsmouth City Council, said: ‘I think my worry is that the NHS in Portsmouth looks as if it is at breaking point in lots of different places.
‘People are unable to get GP appointments, but it’s not the fault of GPs - it’s that we have half the number of GPs other places have.
‘You have an issue when parts of the country have twice the number of GPs you have in Portsmouth.’
As previously reported, figures by the Nuffield Trust revealed Portsmouth had the worst ratio of GPs to patients, with only one GP to every 2,463 residents.
Cllr Vernon-Jackson added: ‘This creates more pressure with people going to St Mary’s and A&E, and there is more pressure on the ambulances.
‘The whole system is under real pressure, and I think we have a real problem across all of the health services in Portsmouth.
‘I’ve called a summit on August 4 to see what we can do to try to alleviate the problem.’
The city’s Lib Dems plan to ‘directly employ, and fund, GPs through either the city council or the Portsmouth Primary Care Alliance’, a proposal which has the backing of Portsmouth North MP Penny Mordaunt.