General Practitioners: Recruitment and Retention

Lord Allan of Hallam Excerpts

Monday 12th June 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

First, I would agree—I think we all agree—that continuity of care is very important. We absolutely want a career structure that attracts and retains exactly those types of people, so that they feel it is more rewarding, both financially and as a job, to work in such a practice environment.

[Lord Allan of Hallam (LD)]

My Lords, I expected this Question to be the cue for our weekly reassurance from the Minister about the workforce plan, which will be coming “shortly”, “imminently”, “in the blink of an eye”, or whatever the latest formulation will be. In spite of all the reassurances that he has given about numbers, the stark reality remains that many people up and down the country find it extremely hard to see a GP when they need to, and that has knock-on effects for everyone else, including accident and emergency services. Does the Minister have anything new to offer that might give us some confidence that we will turn the corner in the near future?

[Lord Markham (Con)]

The primary care plan was a very good example of something new, substantial and backed by £1.2 billion of investment to beat the 8 am morning rush and use technology—which I know the noble Lord is very interested in—to allow people to self-help in a lot of these situations.