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 improve access to GP services for patients with long-term conditions such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

We know that improving access to general practice (GP) services is key for all patients, including those with long-term conditions, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

In England, we have invested £160 million into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme to support the recruitment of over 2,000 individual GPs into primary care networks (PCNs) across England, helping to increase appointment availability and improve care for thousands of patients. We are also introducing a practice-level GP reimbursement scheme using £292 million of repurposed funding from the current Capacity and Access Payment. This funding will be available to practices to hire additional GPs or fund more sessions with existing GPs to improve access in GPs

The Government will bring back the family doctor for those who would benefit from seeing the same clinician regularly, for example, those living with chronic illness, such as COPD. In the 2026/27 GP Contract we will make it a core requirement for PCNs to identify and prioritise cohorts for continuity of care using risk stratification tools as part of their core activities. This will make continuity a core expectation within primary care and support future work to embed more meaningful continuity models in subsequent contract reform.

As a result of all our measures, we've delivered 8.3 million more GP appointments, and Office for National Statistics data shows that nearly three quarters of patients now report a good experience with their GP.