Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken to introduce (a) video consultations and (b) other new technology into primary care service delivery.

From April 2014 to April 2016, the Government has invested £175 million in developing innovative approaches to extend access to general practice through the Prime Minister’s GP Access Fund which has included testing, adoption, and evaluation of:

― new types of consultation such as phone, video and online consultations;

― online pre-referral diagnosis tools; and

― telehealth, telecare and healthy living apps.

During 2017/18 and 2018/19, £171 million will be made available from clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to enable practices to upscale and implement measures tested through the Access Fund.

A further £1 billion multiyear investment has been committed via the Estates and Technology Transformation Fund from April 2015 to April 2019, to help GP practices go further and faster to increase the use of technology and develop the primary care estate. Funding will be aligned with local digital roadmaps priorities and will support technology led improvement and innovation which improve patient and clinician experience of services, and access to primary care.

The ‘General Practice Forward View’, released in April 2016, announced a commitment to greater use of technology. This includes an increase of over 18% in allocations to CCGs for provision of IT services and technology for general practice, alongside revised funding arrangements for GP IT in 2016-18. This will allow CCGs sufficient local flexibility to commission and procure GP IT services to meet local need. There will also be an additional £45 million multiyear national programme to stimulate uptake of online consultation technology for every practice.

The National Information Board also has a programme of work known as Transforming General Practice which will use technology to free GPs from time consuming administrative tasks and provide patients with online services.