Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the forthcoming workforce implementation plan will include a plan to increase the number of general practitioners.

The NHS Long Term Plan, published 7 January 2019, sets out a vital strategic framework to ensure that over the next 10 years the National Health Service will have the staff it needs. This included the commitment to deliver a net increase of 5,000 general practitioners (GPs) as soon as possible.

The publication of ‘Investment and evolution: A five-year framework for GP contract reform to implement the NHS Long Term Plan’ in January 2019 confirmed that NHS England will now extend a number of general practice programmes for a five year period until 2023/24 to help deliver against this commitment.

Further plans to support delivery will be set out in the NHS workforce implementation plan due to be published later this year. This plan will build on the General Practice Forward View to increase the number of doctors working in general practice and will also continue recent provision for a range of other roles.