Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that (a) Brighton and Hove and (b) other similar cities in England have an adequate number of GP surgeries.

The General Practice Forward View (GP Forward View), published in April 2016, commits to increasing investment in General Practice by £2.4 billion a year by 2020/21 from £9.7 billion in 2015/16 to over £12 billion by 2020/21 – a 14% real-terms increase. This investment will improve patient care and access, and facilitate new ways of providing primary care.

Commissioners of primary medical care services monitor practice catchment areas to ensure that all areas of the country have primary medical care cover, and through an annual review of every primary medical care contract are aware of local primary medical care capacity and how this meets demand.

Practices are funded on a weighted population basis and therefore, where populations grow gradually, practices receive additional investment to take on new patients which allows them to grow to maintain services for patients. There has been a national trend in practices becoming larger, employing more staff and operating with a more diverse workforce in order to meet rising demand.

Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is investing in general practice to improve patients’ access to GP services and increase the range of services to help support patients manage their conditions. Measures include financial and educational support to help GPs run their surgeries more effectively and efficiently.

A key part of local plans to improve health and social care across the city is to make general practice more sustainable, more resilient and ensure it works efficiently and effectively for many years ahead. This will include integrating some services with other clinical specialists, for example pharmacists better supporting GPs, and helping GPs work more collaboratively. There are also a number of specific schemes in place as part of the CCG’s workforce strategy including the GP retention package and overseas recruitment.