Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme launched in 2016 in achieving its aims; what further steps he plans to take to ensure that rural areas have an adequate number of General Practitioners in the future; and if he will make a statement.

Through the Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme (TERS), there were 550 training places in 2021 for doctors in areas which have experienced challenges in recruiting staff. In 2022, additional investment has ensured that there are 800 training places. General practitioner (GP) trainees provide direct patient care and those on the TERS scheme can provide additional resource in these locations.

We are diversifying the general practice workforce to ensure that GPs are supported to deliver appropriate patient care. We are recruiting an additional 26,000 primary care staff to ensure that a range of skills are available in general practice, with over 18,000 staff currently in post.