NHS: A&E Waiting Time Target

Lord Clark of Windermere Excerpts

Tuesday 21st January 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Clark of Windermere (Lab)]

My Lords, regarding the increase in the number of GPs, bearing in mind that the coalition Government cut the training of doctors by thousands upon thousands and that the Government have announced that they are going to increase the number of GPs by 6,000, will the Government produce a timeline of when they are going to meet that target of 6,000 extra doctors?

[Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford]

My Lords, I know that the timetables are going to come forward in the people plan, so I cannot give you that in detail today. What I can tell you is that we have announced that we are investing an extra £4.5 billion in primary and community care by 2024 to fund a good amount of this. The five-year GP contract was agreed between NHS England and the BMA last January, which makes the job much more attractive. In addition, salaried GPs will receive at least a 2% increase and there are incentives to attract them into rural areas, which are struggling the most with recruitment. We have also announced that we want to recruit staff into support services around GPs so that GPs are not focusing on administrative tasks, which has been a disincentive to recruitment over the last period.