GP Services

Duncan Hames Excerpts

Thursday 5th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab)]

rose—

[Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)]

rose—

[John Howell]

I give way to the hon. Member for Heywood and Middleton (Liz McInnes).

[John Howell]

I will give way to the hon. Member for Chippenham (Duncan Hames) and then respond to both interventions.

[Duncan Hames]

I do not find fault with the patients, but does the hon. Gentleman agree that a significant difference between the funding patterns for primary and secondary care is that in secondary care the more treatment provided and the more patients seen, the more funding provided by commissioners to the provider, yet the same pattern, where funding is proportionate to the amount of activity undertaken, is not typically seen in what we ask of general practice?

--- Later in debate ---

[Dr Poulter]

Indeed, there was an increase in the number of GPs, as there has been under this Government, but it is not good enough to lay the blame for a lack of GPs at this Government’s door, as the hon. Gentleman and the shadow Minister tried to do, when it takes a long time to train more GPs. What may have been a better decision for the previous Government in the advanced work force planning would have been to follow this Government’s example, by saying that 50% of medical graduates should become GPs. Currently, the rate is 40%. That needs to rise to 50%, and we need to encourage more people to become GPs. If we had more equality in where medical graduates end up practising medicine, that would be a big step in the right direction in training the extra GPs needed. If that had been done 10 years ago, we might not have some of the problems that the hon. Gentleman outlined. Indeed, he said that only 27% of GPs were under the age of 40. That reinforces my point about medical graduates.

[Duncan Hames]

I agree with the Minister that there is no substitute for persuading more medical graduates to train as GPs, but will he look at what can be done to attract women who were GPs back into general practice after they have started a family if that was the reason why they left? Will he also look at the working practices that we require of GPs to find out how that can be a more reliable way to make the most of the GP training that we have committed to?

[Dr Poulter]

Indeed. My hon. Friend makes an important point and echoes that made earlier by my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth (Sarah Newton). At the moment, a valuable part of our general practice work force, perhaps due to life circumstances or the fact that they have started a family and have had two children quickly one after another, face difficulties in going back into practice. Issues to do with the operation of what is called the performers list need to be looked at, and I will ensure that NHS England does so and considers how we can better support GPs to get back into practice when they have had career breaks for legitimate family and other reasons.