General Practitioners: Coronavirus

(asked on 12th October 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the health impact of missed GP appointments as a result of covid-19; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 22nd December 2020

General practice is open and people should continue to access services by phone, online or in person.

Although general practitioner appointment numbers fell in the early stages of lockdown, practices remained open offering more remote consultations to see as many patients as possible while protecting staff and patients from avoidable risk of infection. Appointment numbers are recovering and are returning to levels seen before lockdown.

Practices continue to undertake routine and preventative work including vaccinations and immunisations and screening, as well as supporting their more high-risk patients with ongoing care needs. Although it is still too early to carry out a full assessment of the impact, we continue to monitor the situation closely.

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