Clive Jones has made safeguarding our local NHS his top priority. It's personal for Clive because he relied on local health services when he was diagnosed with cancer 15 years ago.
High-quality healthcare, free at the point of use, is essential for both individual freedom and national prosperity. Good health gives people the freedom to live the lives they choose, and a thriving economy needs a healthy population.
The Conservatives have plunged the NHS into crisis – as have the SNP in Scotland and Labour in Wales. They have run local health services into the ground, putting people, buildings and beds under immense pressure. With 112,000 staff vacancies in England alone, long waiting times, missed targets and poor outcomes, patient safety is being pushed into the danger zone.
People are no longer confident that when they need medical help they can get it. When they ring 999 they don’t know if they will get the emergency treatment they need in time. Millions are waiting for treatment, unable to work.
Liberal Democrats believe that everyone should get the care they need, when they need it. That’s why we would ensure everyone can get an appointment when they need one and get the crucial treatment they so desperately need.
In particular, we will:
Funding for GP practices in the integrated care board area of Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire which included Wokingham has been slashed by £20,394,409 in real terms since 2019
We are asking the Government: where is the new Royal Berkshire Hospital?
There are 34,951 incomplete patient pathways on a waiting list in West Berkshire which included Wokingham - the equivalent of 60 per 1,000 patients
In Prime Minister’s Questions, Rishi Sunak dodged Ed Davey’s question about the status of the Government’s promise to build a new Royal Berkshire hospital which serves Reading, Wokingham and South Oxfordshire.
Liberal Democrats in Wokingham have accused the Government of being ‘content with local health services crumbling’ after Wednesday’s Autumn Statement failed to provide additional funding for local health services.
John Redwood, Wokingham’s Conservative MP, has been criticised after voting against a Liberal Democrat amendment which would have committed the government to improving GP and ambulance wait times.
