A GP who backed Brexit to "save the NHS" says she is "delighted" with the referendum outcome.

Dr Laurel Spooner, who has spent more than 30 years working as a GP, had called on voters to bring the UK out of the EU so more money can be spent on the NHS.

She welcomed Friday's result, saying it would bring with it more money for the health service and one less tier of bureaucracy.

Retired Dr Spooner, 60, who still works occasionally at Tollgate Surgery, in London Road, said: "This move will bring real advantages to the NHS.

"The cuts we have seen are cuts to the clinical side of things when in fact the money should be saved on the bureaucratic side of things."

She said the NHS is hamstrung by the EU because it limits how quickly new equipment can be bought for hospitals, how quickly new drugs can be used and also delays research trials Dr Spooner added: "We will now be able to prioritise the things which are most important to us.

"We are quite capable of regulating ourselves without having to be regulated by the EU again."

The GP also said being able to scrap the Working Time Directive will help in the training of new doctors.

She said, although it should protect doctors, it does not.

She added: ""It makes doctors do more shifts but shorter shifts, which is making training them very difficult."

Dr Spooner said allowing doctors to work longer shifts, but fewer shifts, will help with a patient's 'continuity of care'.

She added: "It would now be possible for the patient to see the same doctor during their care at hospital.

"That is better because that doctor knows about the patient, what has happened and what treatment they are to get.

"They will be able to see the treatment through.

"It is going to be very much better when we don't have the Working Time Directive influencing how we staff wards."

Dr Spooner also rubbished claims the NHS would suffer because of Brexit because it relied heavily on outside-of-the-UK recruitment.

She said: "A doctor is a doctor. The NHS has doctors coming from all over the world - they just need a visa."