Sarah Champion MP welcomes the Labour Government’s plans to deliver for patients in Rotherham through GP surgery refurbishments
Sarah Champion, Labour MP for Rotherham has today welcomed the Labour government’s announcement that patients will benefit from over 8.3 million more GP appointments each year as over a thousand doctor’s surgeries receive a bricks and mortar upgrade to modernise practices.
Patients in Rotherham will benefit from a share of the 8 million new GP appointments this year, being delivered through Labour’s Plan for Change
Currently GPs have capacity to take on more patients but can’t because of outdated buildings limiting working spaces
Over 1000 GP surgeries across the country, including in South Yorkshire to be supported to modernise, backed by biggest public investment in GP facilities for five years
Sarah Champion said that residents in Rotherham would soon feel the impact of an announcement that will ‘help deliver on Labour’s promise to fix the front door of the NHS’ and would be ‘music to the ears of patients in Rotherham who are too often stuck in the 8am scramble for a GP appointment’.
Backed by the Labour government’s major cash injection of over £102 million, over 1000 GP surgeries will receive vital funding to create additional space to see more patients, boost productivity and improve patient care, following years of neglect.
Right now, many GP surgeries could be seeing more patients, but don’t have enough room or the right facilities to accommodate them. From creating new consultation and treatment rooms to making better use of existing space, these quick fixes will help patients across the country, including in Rotherham, be seen faster.
This represents the biggest investment in GP facilities in five years and is only possible because of the difficult but necessary choices made by the government in the Budget to invest £26 billion into the NHS. And it is another measure helping the Labour government shift care out of hospital and into the community, as part of its Plan for Change.
Sarah Champion, MP for Rotherham said:
“Residents in Rotherham have had to endure the ‘8am scramble’ in a bid to get a GP appointment for far too long, these refurbishment plans will change this.
“It is a relief to see the Government acting on such a longstanding issue.
“I am pleased to see that local surgeries, Brinsworth Medical Centre, Greenside Surgery Greasbrough, and Wickersley Medical Practice, and their patients, are all set to benefit from this widespread investment.”
Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting, said:
“It will be a long road, but this government is putting in the work to fix our NHS and make it fit for the future.
“These are simple fixes for our GP surgeries but for too long they were left to ruin, allowing waiting lists to build and stopping doctors treating more patients.
“It is only because of the necessary decisions we took in the Budget that we are able to invest in GP surgeries, start tackling the 8am scramble and deliver better services for patients. The extra investment and reform this government is making, as part of its Plan for Change, will transform our NHS so it can once again be there for you when you need it.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors:
Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund 2025 to 2026: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/primary-care-utilisation-and-modernisation-fund-2025-to-2026
Projects will be delivered during the 2025-26 financial year, with the first upgrades expected to begin in summer 2025