Oral Answers to Questions

John Howell Excerpts

Tuesday 5th July 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

First, I welcome the hon. Lady to her position. She is the third shadow Health Secretary I have faced in less than a year, and I am beginning to worry that it may be something personal. I wish her well; she knows the brief extremely well and has campaigned on it a great deal in her long parliamentary career. I will look into the case she brought up. I would not want anyone to be deprived of vital lifesaving drugs because of exchange rate fluctuations. The whole British economy, including the NHS, will have to deal with the economic shock that we may now face as a result of the Brexit vote. But now that the decision has been taken by the British people we must look for the opportunities for the UK and the NHS, and not simply worry about the uncertainties, although there will be lots of things we have to deal with.

[John Howell (Henley) (Con)]

4. What plans his Department has to increase capacity in general practice and primary care.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Jeremy Hunt)]

We will be investing an extra £2.4 billion a year in general practice by 2020-21, a 14% increase in real terms. The General Practice Forward View, published earlier this year, sets out a package of support for general practice to boost the workforce, drive efficiencies in workload and modernise primary care infrastructure and technology.

[John Howell]

General practitioners in Henley have recently written a letter to all their patients pointing out the difficulties they face in fulfilling their workload. Will the Secretary of State explain what the Government are doing about that and how what they are doing will help?

[Mr Hunt]

I am happy to do so. I recognise the picture that my hon. Friend paints—not just in Henley but across the country—of a huge increase in GPs’ workload, which they are finding extremely challenging. What have we done? We have almost 1,300 more GPs working and training in the NHS compared with 2010. We have said that by the end of this Parliament we will seek to make available an additional 10,000 primary and community care staff, including 5,000 doctors working in general practice and 1,000 physician associates. We recognise the problem and are doing something about it.