The prime minister, David Cameron, has promised to transform the NHS into a seven-day-a-week universal health service.
He pledged on Monday to deliver a service that will guarantee care to patients “wherever they are and whenever they need it”.
Cameron plans to meet the Conservatives’ manifesto commitment to provide an extra £8bn a year in funding to the NHS by the end of parliament. He also aims to expand a GP access fund, aimed at ensuring that 18 million patients will have access to a GP in the evenings and at weekends.
Norman Lamb, a Liberal Democrat health minister until the election, has claimed that a seven-day NHS cannot be achieved within the service’s existing budget and will need even more money than the sum already pledged.
“The idea that you can just achieve this without additional resources is just fanciful,” he told the Guardian.
What do you think? Can a seven-day service be achieved? Why (not)? Take our poll and tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.
Here’s what some of you have said on Twitter:
@GdnHealthcare 7 day is needed but some of Hunt's suggestions for improvement already in place, and no clear answer for how to fund!
— Henry Greenslade (@henrygee7) May 18, 2015
@GdnHealthcare @guardian I fear not w/out eroding pay & conditions of frontline staff already running the #NHS 7days a week #sneakysoundbite
— Lizzie Bee (@Li33ieBee) May 18, 2015
@GdnHealthcare @guardian Pilot sites for 7day working must be in areas of worst health so we don't widen health gap
— GURCH randhawa (@gurchrandhawa) May 18, 2015
