Oral Answers to Questions

Steve Double Excerpts

Tuesday 20th March 2018 Commons Chamber

[Royston Smith (Southampton, Itchen) (Con)]

14. What steps he is taking to increase the capacity and availability of GP services.

[Steve Double (St Austell and Newquay) (Con)]

16. What steps he is taking to increase the capacity and availability of GP services.

[Craig Tracey (North Warwickshire) (Con)]

21. What steps he is taking to increase the capacity and availability of GP services.

--- Later in debate ---

[Steve Brine]

The Secretary of State has already outlined the plans for the new medical schools and the record 3,157 GP training places that were filled. I am aware of the practice that my hon. Friend mentions, and that is why we are working with the profession on a range of measures to boost recruitment into general practice. The existing professionals also have a role to pay, and the superb chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, Helen Stokes-Lampard, is really leading from the front in that respect.

[Steve Double]

Does the Minister agree that part of the way to address some of the pressures that GPs face is to enhance the role of community pharmacies? Will he update the House on what steps he has taken to support pharmacies and further integrate them with general practice?

[Steve Brine]

We know that there are benefits to be had from the better integration of community pharmacies with sustainability and transformation partnerships. Through the pharmacy integration fund, we are integrating pharmacists into primary care. I hear good reports about how that is going and we will have 2,000 of them in general practice by 2020. Community pharmacies themselves should also be integrated, through STPs, because it is one NHS.