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 recruit more GPs in Loughborough constituency.

We have committed to training thousands more general practitioners (GPs) across the country, as well as taking pressure off those currently working in the system. NHS England has allocated £1.9 million of emergency short term funding, from October 2024 to March 2025, for the recruitment of newly qualified GPs in the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board (LLR ICB). The LLR Workforce Steering Group is reviewing options for how this additional resource can be used most effectively across the LLR ICB, including within the Loughborough area.

Newly qualified GPs are also being offered support through the LLR Primary Care Training Hub, which provides high quality education, training, and support to those working in primary care. The hub is currently working up a local offer of support for newly qualified GPs following the cessation of the national fellowship scheme in March 2024. This local offer will include continuing professional development, leadership development and wellbeing support, peer networking, and focused mentoring sessions, and will be delivered flexibly to enable GPs to access the support that they need.