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 the number of GP surgeries in Epping Forest constituency.

The Government wants everyone to be able to access a primary care professional when they need to. NHS England has overall responsibility for ensuring that there are sufficient primary medical services to meet the reasonable requirements of patients throughout the country. To do so, they will contract providers such as general practices (GPs) to provide these services.

It is for local commissioners to determine what services and care pathways to put in place to best serve the needs of their patient population.  We expect commissioners to act if services are not meeting the reasonable needs of their patients. In the event of a closure, commissioners will assess the need for a replacement provider before transferring patients to alternative practices when a GP surgery closes.