Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help GPs meet the needs of patients.

The Government is providing £82 million to fund the recruitment of more than 1,000 newly qualified general practitioners, via the additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS), so patients can get the care they need.

The ARRS provides funding for several additional roles to help create bespoke, multi-disciplinary teams. All these roles are in place to assist general practice doctors in reducing their workload and assisting patients directly with their needs, allowing doctors to focus on more complex patients and other priorities, including continuity of care.

This 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. This will improve continuity of care, which is associated with better health outcomes and fewer accident and emergency attendances.