No doctors, no development: Liverpool Lib Dems calls for a GP Guarantee on all new developments in Liverpool as average surgery in the city serves 414 extra homes since 2015

• The Liberal Democrats have unveiled a new plan to ensure all developments come with new or expanded GP surgeries in Liverpool and for ensuring that all communities in Liverpool have easy access to health and other vital services. 
• The call comes as shocking analysis reveals that GP surgeries in Liverpool serve an extra 414 homes each since 2015 a 19% increase. 

The Liverpool Liberal Democrats are launching a campaign to guarantee GP investment on new developments. It comes as Lib Dem analysis shows that an eyewatering 1300 surgeries have closed in a decade (between 2015 and 2025) across the country.

Thousands of Liverpool residents have been telling the Liberal Democrats about their struggles to get a GP appointment - including in areas of the city where new developments are planned, like Vauxhall, Chinatown, and the North Docks.

Liverpool Lib Dem Shadow Cabinet Member for Housing, Cllr Richard Kemp, wants new or expanded GP surgeries to be up and running in areas of new development as soon as the first homes are sold. This is part of their proposed infrastructure first approach to development and supports their campaign to rescue General Practice and ensure everyone can get an appointment within 7 days or 24 hours if urgent.

Developers across Liverpool would be required to work with the NHS and other key public suppliers to ensure that space is made available in their developments for GP practices, chemists and dentists in order that not only is health improved but also that communities can be formed.

Delivery of health services has been found to be integral for public trust, with recent LSE research finding that where GP provision has declined and more surgeries have closed, support for the extreme right has risen.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Cllr Richard Kemp said:

“There has never been a worse time to be a patient in Liverpool, with health services overstretched and NHS targets routinely missed. Our city badly need investment in local services, including GPs, to cut waiting times and get people they care they desperately need.

“In communities across the country such as Liverpool, when new housing is built, GPs are promised but not delivered - this must end. Councils and local communities should be given the powers to hold developers' feet to the fire and demand the local doctors’ surgeries we so badly need.

“That’s why I’m launching a campaign to get our local NHS back on track, by building and delivering the services our communities need and ensuring new homes always go hand in hand with more GPs, dentists and chemists.”