Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what mechanisms are in place to help ensure that safe levels of workload are deployed in general practice.

The GP Contract states that each practice is required to provide primary medical services to meet the reasonable needs of their registered patients. As self-employed contractors to the National Health Service, practices determine the appropriate workforce to match the workload, including the number and range of health professionals. There is no recommendation for the number of patients assigned to a general practitioner. This can be affected by various factors, including rurality and patient demographics. As part of the 2020/21 GP Contract, we have committed to a review of bureaucracy in general practice which is ongoing.