The GSD has today announced the introduction of a new appointment system for the Primary Care Centre. The party says that the new system would mean abolishing the current one whereby people “need to put up with endless queues on the first day of the month” – something the party describes as “a failed GSLP policy.”

The GSD’s Spokesperson for Health, Marlene Hassan Nahon said: “I found it quite cheeky to see the GSLP team at their press conference yesterday championing a new Primary Care Centre appointment system as if they had discovered America when it was them who had introduced the current failed one, which has caused so much inconvenience to so many people over the last four years. What is needed is to work with service providers and users to look at alternative appointments system and then change it.

Once we have come up with a suitable alternative we will scrap 1st of month system. At present the system is very inflexible, and we need to make it more flexible.”

Ms Hassan Nahon continued: “There are two sides to this issue. The first is that there is a base of patients with chronic illnesses/conditions who do benefit from advance appointments, but then of course there is majority of patients who have no idea when they or their children are going to get sick so this policy was always going to be nonsensical as it is highly impractical and inconvenient for the bulk of citizens.

“The GSLP have unfortunately forgotten that this disastrous policy was their brainchild, and once again, another example of the party’s lack of judgment. Unfortunately, they have not even had the basic decency to apologise to the vulnerable patients of Gibraltar and explain why they even decided to introduce it in the first place and how they are going to change things. Instead, they are pretending it never happened and have suddenly come up with a new and improved formula, which apparently we should be commending them for. Surely this time, they will not be able to ‘blame the GSD’.”