Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it a departmental priority to make an assessment of the potential merits of joined-up care liaison between GPs and district nurses.

The ‘Joining up care for people, places and populations’ white paper published in February 2022 set out the intention to develop shared outcomes at local and national level to achieve better integration of services and patient experience. This includes integration between primary and community care through such measures as the Enhanced Health in Care Homes programme, which we have committed to deploy in England by 2024. We are also increasing and diversifying the general practice workforce to ensure practices can meet the needs of the local population. NHS England and NHS Improvement are developing a National Community Nursing Plan which will set out how we will ensure the success of community nursing and collaboration to improve patient outcomes and experience. In addition, the NHS is implementing the ‘Hospital at Home’ model of care to enable community services to support people with the most complex health needs at home, through general practitioners and community health staff working together.