Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has been made of levels of disparities in GP-to-patient ratios between rural and urban constituencies.

Each general practice is required to provide services to meet the reasonable needs of their patients, and to consider the workforce required to meet those needs.

As independent contractors to the National Health Service, it is down to general practices to determine the staffing and skills mix that they recruit.

The number of patients per general practitioner (GP) has been steadily falling since the 2024 election and we are committed to continuing to expand GP workforce capacity. Thanks to actions taken by this Government, we now have the highest number of fully qualified GPs since 2015.