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 encourage GPs to relocate to areas with a GP shortage; and what steps he is taking to improve working conditions in those areas.

NHS England and Health Education England (HEE) are working together with the profession to increase the general practitioner (GP) workforce. This includes measures to boost recruitment, address the reasons why GPs are leaving the profession, and encourage GPs to return to practice.

To encourage GPs to work in areas of the country identified as hard to recruit, NHS England and Health Education England have funded the Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme. The scheme funds a £20,000 salary supplement for GP trainees who commit to spending their three years of speciality training in areas of the country where GP training places have been unfilled for a number of years. There were 122 places in 2016, 144 in 2017 and 265 in 2018. In 2019 a further 276 places have been made available.