Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase ease of access to GP appointments in Macclesfield constituency.

We are increasing access to general practice appointments nationally and in the Macclesfield constituency.

We have invested an additional £1.1 billion into general practitioners (GPs), the biggest cash increase in over a decade. In October 2024, we invested £160 million into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme to support the recruitment of over 2,600 individual GPs into primary care networks across England, helping to increase appointment availability and improve care for thousands of patients.

The new £102 million Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund will create additional clinical space within over 1,000 practices across England. This investment will deliver more appointments and improve patient care

We are also committed to making it easier for patients to contact their general practices. That’s why, Since 1 October, GP practices have been required to offer access to online services throughout core hours (8:00am–18:30pm), bringing online access in line with walk-in and phone access. This change aims to improve patient access, reduce long phone queues, and help GPs manage demand more effectively.

After a decade of declining satisfaction, patient experiences with contacting their GP has improved significantly. As of December 2025, 75.2% of patients report that they find it is easy to contact their GP practice, a 14.3 percentage point increase since July 2024 (60.9%).