Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Phillips Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

We absolutely will take a whole health economy view of that, and look at all hospitals that are affected by the changes.

[Stephen Phillips (Sleaford and North Hykeham) (Con)]

4. What steps he is taking to reduce the burden of administration on GPs.

[The Minister for Community and Social Care (Alistair Burt)]

Before I respond, I should like to thank my two predecessors, who have covered most of this portfolio: my hon. Friend the Member for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich (Dr Poulter) and the right hon. Member for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb). They have given me a firm foundation on which to build, and I am grateful to them for their work in the Department. Reducing the burden of administration on GPs is important to all of us in the Government. We have already cut the quality and outcomes framework by more than a third to help reduce administration, but we are looking for ways to do more because we recognise that this is a significant problem.

[Stephen Phillips]

Let me take this opportunity to welcome my right hon. Friend back to the Front Bench. I know that he will want to spend a lot of time in GP surgeries, and we look forward to welcoming him to Lincolnshire in due course.

I want to ask him about the use of information technology and computers during consultations with GPs. I am told by a GP in my constituency that so much time is spent collecting data and inputting them into the computer that there is a loss of focus on the patient, with a possible detriment to patient care. Will my right hon. Friend undertake to look into that and to come to the House in due course to say what can be done to ensure that, during every GP consultation, the focus is always on the patient and not on the computer?

[Alistair Burt]

Notwithstanding the importance of recording information collected during a consultation, my hon. and learned Friend’s constituent is absolutely right that it should not get in the way of the relationship between doctor and patient. We have already removed some of the administrative burdens by cutting a third of the quality and outcomes framework indicators that need to be recorded, but plainly more needs to be done. He is right to say that I am looking forward to seeing quite a lot of GP surgeries in the forthcoming months.