Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the number of GPs in rural constituencies.

The Government wants everyone to be able to access a primary care professional when they need to. The actions set out in the NHS Long Term Plan, backed by the extra £4.5 billion of investment in primary and community care by 2023/24, and the five-year contract framework for general practice, are already being implemented and will build the general practice workforce and improve access to primary care services. The full People Plan will set out a broader strategy for growing the workforce by 6,000 more doctors in general practice through recruitment and retention programmes.

Current schemes include the Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme, a £20,000 one-off payment that attracts general practitioner (GP) trainees to parts of the country where there have been consistent shortages of GP trainees, including rural communities. 276 places are available in 2020/21.