General Practitioners: Coronavirus

(asked on 22nd July 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on patient access to GP services in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 6th September 2021

General Practices (GPs) are open and have been throughout the pandemic. Appointment numbers have risen from the lowest point in April 2020 with 0.83 million appointments per working day to 1.22 million in June 2021 (excluding GP delivered COVID-19 vaccination appointments). Compared to June 2019 this is a 2.8% increase (1.19 million). In June 2021 there were 20,200 estimated appointments per working day in Coventry and Warwickshire. This is a 29% increase from 2020 and a 3% increase compared to 2019. Increased numbers of patients in Coventry and Warwickshire are having appointments on the day or the day after requesting one, with 63% occurring on the day or the day after, which is well above the national position of 55%. To ensure GPs and their teams are able to provide the necessary care for all patients during this busy time, we have made available an additional £270 million from November 2020 until September 2021. Primary Care Networks (PCNs) are also encouraged to make use of the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, representing an average of 12-13 additional Full-Time-Equivalent members of staff in post for each PCN.

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