Labour’s health spokeswoman has admitted a pledge to guarantee GP appointments within two days of booking does not mean patients will actually see a doctor.
Jenny Marra told a hustings event organised by the British Medical Association the pledge means a healthcare worker will see those admitting themselves as being sick, not necessarily a practitioner.
At Scottish Labour’s spring conference, party leader Kezia Dugdale told delegates her “plan for the NHS will guarantee an appointment at your local surgery that you can book online within 48 hours”.
But north-east candidate Ms Marra admitted there was “a little bit of confusion about” the announcement.
She said: “I think that was the way the media reported it but actually it is not a guarantee to see a GP directly but a GP’s appointment, so within the surgery and signposted off to the appropriated healthcare professional.
“We all know, and I think we are all signed up to, the 2020 vision and we know the future of healthcare is going to be in the community surrounding primary care.”
The Scottish Conservatives’ health spokesman Jackson Carlaw – who attended the hustings with Ms Marra – claimed Labour’s “half-baked plan” had been “hastily abandoned”.
He said: “There was no doubt in anybody’s mind that Labour was promising everyone access to a GP within 48 hours.
“However, under pressure at election health hustings this was ‘re-profiled’ by Jenny Marra as nothing more than access to a local surgery but not a guaranteed appointment with a doctor.
“This was a half-baked pledge to start with, was dismissed by doctors and others as ill-judged and has been hastily abandoned. What a shambles.
“Scotland needs less grandstanding from Labour, and a non-partisan strategic plan to guarantee Scotland’s NHS, securely funded with the Scottish Conservatives’ ‘triple-lock’ funding guarantee for the lifetime of the next Scottish Parliament.”
