Oral Answers to Questions Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department of Health and Social Care
Philip Hollobone
Main Page: Philip Hollobone (Conservative - Kettering)Department Debates - View all Philip Hollobone's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(9 years, 5 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Hunt
I am happy to ensure that inner-London MPs have a meeting with the Minister to discuss those issues. The underfunding of general practice has been an historical problem, because we have had very strong hospital targets, which have tended to suck resources into the acute sector and away from out-of-hospital care. We want to put that right.
Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)
The problem in Northamptonshire is that because of rapid population growth, the gap between the appointments required of GP surgeries and the slots available is one of the biggest in the country. There are 333 Northamptonshire GPs at the moment; Healthwatch Northamptonshire estimates that another 183 will be required within the next five years. How are we going to fill that gap?
Mr Hunt
My hon. Friend is absolutely right to draw attention to that issue. We have plans to train another 5,000 GPs across the country. In the last Parliament, we increased GPs by about 5%. We need to go much further, as part of a real transformation of out-of-hospital care.