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 increase the availability of face-to-face GP appointments in Selby and Ainsty constituency.
We are investing at least £1.5 billion to create an additional 50 million general practice (GP) appointments by 2024 by growing and diversifying the workforce. In the twelve months to July 2023, there were 352.6 million appointments booked across England, up by 43.8 million compared to the twelve months up to July 2019.
The National Health Service is clear that GPs must provide face-to-face appointments, alongside remote consultations, and patients’ input into consultation type should be sought and their preferences for face-to-face care respected unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary. In Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, 69.7% of appointments were face-to-face in July 2023.