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 help GP practices invest in new IT systems.

The General Practice Forward View, published in 2016, set out our ambition to increase digital use and investment in general practices (GPs), and is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/general-practice-forward-view-gpfv/

This was followed by the NHS Long Term Plan and A Plan for Digital Health and Social Care, which both include actions to drive digital and technology transformation in GPs to deliver efficient services and improve patient care and access.

NHS England ensures that modern, integrated, secure and user-friendly digital systems are available through the GP IT Operating Model, the Digital Care Services catalogue and the GP IT Futures frameworks. This work supports ongoing improvements to procurement processes, a greater choice of nationally accredited digital suppliers and products that meet core standards, requirements and capabilities to ensure GP IT systems continually evolve and advance with minimal impact and disruption to care.