Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many meetings (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department held with representatives of NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board in the 2025-26 financial year; and how many of those meetings related to the provision of GP services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
The information is not held in the format requested, and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department provides guidance to GPs on the suitability of premises for the delivery of GP services.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
Providers are expected to comply with Regulation 15 Premises and equipment in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. Premises where care and treatment are delivered must be clean, and suitable for the intended purpose. Adequate support facilities and amenities must be provided where relevant to the service being provided. For general practice (GP) premises this includes access to toilets, adequate seating, and waiting space. The Care Quality Commission can take regulatory action for failure to comply, for instance issuing a warning notice to the provider to make improvements.
In 2025/26 we committed to investing £102 million to upgrade GP surgeries across England, through the Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund (PCUMF). This has supported 790 capital investment projects across England so far, upgrading GP buildings by bringing unused space into clinical use to enable approximately nine million clinical appointments and improving capacity. We will continue the PCUMF, providing £200 million of further investment this Parliament. Capital guidance for 2026/27 to 2029/30 has been issued by NHS England, which sets out the framework for multi-year spend, and which is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/capital-guidance-2026-27-to-2029-30/
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many extra GP appointments were delivered in Tunbridge Wells constituency in 2025/26 compared to 2024/25.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Secretary of State for Wales
The following table shows general practice (GP) appointment data for the Tunbridge Wells constituency:
Financial year | Appointments in GPs |
2024/25 | 622,644 |
2025/26 | 614,065 |
We are working to expand capacity in GPs which will help deliver more appointments to patients. Changes to the 2025/26 GP Contract removed restrictions so individual primary care networks (PCNs) can hire more GPs, and we have introduced a practice-level GP reimbursement scheme, worth £292 million, which will enable practices to hire additional GPs or fund extra GP sessions with existing GPs. This will improve access, boost capacity, support GP employment, and continue improve patient satisfaction.
In the 2026 GP Patient Survey, 83% of patients in the Tunbridge Wells PCN reported a good overall experience of their GP, compared to 77% nationally. This is an increase from 79% in the 2025 survey.