Oral Answers to Questions

Tom Randall Excerpts

Tuesday 28th January 2020 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Tom Randall (Gedling) (Con)]

1. What steps he is taking to improve access to GPs.

[Sally-Ann Hart (Hastings and Rye) (Con)]

4. What steps he is taking to improve access to GPs.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Matt Hancock)]

With your permission, Mr Speaker, I will answer Questions 1, 4, 6, 11 and 20 together. [Interruption.] General practice is a popular subject.

We will create an extra 50 million appointments a year in primary care so that everyone can go to the GP when they need to.

[Tom Randall]

There are many families with children in Gedling. What is being done to ensure that patients, particularly families with young children, can access GP appointments when they need them?

[Matt Hancock]

Obviously this is an incredibly important subject, and I know the frustration many families feel at not being able to access a GP appointment when they need it. We have a whole-scale programme of work to improve access. This includes recruiting 6,000 more GPs and 26,000 primary care staff other than GPs— increasingly patients at GP surgeries can be treated by nurses—and increasingly enabling people, especially those who find it difficult to travel, to use technology to get the treatment they need.