Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the GP to patient ratio for (a) Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group, (b) other clinical commissioning groups and (c) the UK; what recent assessment he has made of the safe ratio of patients to doctors in GP practices; what steps he is taking to increase the number of GPs in Brighton and Hove; and if he will make a statement.

NHS England and the Department have not sought to make a recommendation about the safe ratio of patients to doctors in general practice as the appropriate ratio is determined by local population demands.

NHS England and Health Education England are working together with the profession to increase the general practitioner (GP) workforce by an additional 5,000 doctors in general practice by 2020. This includes measures to boost recruitment into general practice, address the reasons why GPs are leaving the profession, and encourage GPs to return to practice.

The table below shows patient numbers per headcount GP and headcount GPs per 100,000 population for Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group, NHS England South East, South of England and England.