Health care U turn in Liverpool by Labour government. (Garston and Halewood Liberal Democrats)

Garston and Halewood Liberal Democrats <info@garstonld.org.uk>

Health care U turn in Liverpool by Labour government.

July 16, 2007 12:00 AM

Labour Government plans to scrap small GP surgeries in favour of 'Super surgeries' have been abandoned by Liverpool's Primary Care Trust.

The massive policy U-turn follows the successful national and local Liberal Democrat campaign to keep GP surgeries small and local.

Had the plans gone ahead, local surgeries would have been closed and replaced with a handful of so called 'Super surgeries' across the City.

With Liverpool having one of the lowest car ownership levels in the country, many patients would have found it even harder to access to vital medical services.

Colin Eldridge, a councillor for Church ward who has campaigned against the plans said, "Thousands of local people backed our campaign, so it is thanks to local people that these plans have been defeated."

"This Labour Government is obsessed with centralising services."

"Firstly they tried to merge police forces, then enforce regional government, all at the expense of local service providers."

Patients in Liverpool have proved what Liberal Democrats have said all along, that people want local services delivered locally. Many local Post offices have already closed under Labour, losing GP surgeries would have been another major blow for our community.