Portsmouth MP blasts health secretary for GP '˜crisis'

HEALTH secretary Jeremy Hunt has been blasted by a Portsmouth MP over a '˜crisis' in GP funding.

Stephen Morgan, who represents Portsmouth South, demanded extra cash was pumped into GP budgets to support much-needed community services.

It comes after fresh figures showed hundreds of GPs were leaving the service.

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The Labour MP said: ‘GP services are in crisis. Practice after practice is closing, and more GPs leave the service every day. When will the Secretary of State finally listen to the chair of the British Medical Association’s GP committee, who says that current GP funding is “nowhere near enough”?’

Responding, Hunt said: ‘We have been listening to the Royal College of General Practitioners and the BMA, which is why last year funding for GPs went up by £314m and why it will be going up by £2.4bn over the five-year period, which is a 14 per cent real-terms increase.’

Figures show more than 1,600 GPs quit the NHS despite the extra £2.4bn funding.