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 support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of (i) GPs and (ii) dentists in Hitchin constituency.

We have committed to training thousands more general practitioners (GPs) across the country as well as take pressure off those currently working in the system and NHS England has made a number of recruitment and retention schemes available to GPs.

Getting a National Health Service dentist is increasingly difficult. The Government will tackle the immediate crisis with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to areas that need them most.

Hitchin constituency runs across two integrated care boards (ICBs), Hertfordshire & West Essex and Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes. Hertfordshire & West Essex ICB advises that recruitment initiatives include working with Primary Care Network training teams and supporting the training and development of GPs coming into practice. The Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB provides a range of initiatives to support with the recruitment and retention of GPs for its practices. These include a flexible staffing platform, Lantum, which aids retention of GPs by providing flexible roles, and support with workforce planning.