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 increase the availability of GP appointments in the Bournemouth West constituency.

We are committed to improving the capacity and access to general practice (GP) services across the country, including in the Bournemouth West constituency. Bournemouth West North sits within the NHS Dorset Integrated Care Board. Since June 2024, there has been an 8.5% increase in GP appointments delivered, higher than the national average increase of 7.1% in the same period

In October 2024, we put £82 million into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme to enable the recruitment of 1,000 newly qualified GPs across England, which will increase the number of appointments delivered, and care for thousands of patients

The Government has delivered the biggest boost to GP funding in years, an £889 million uplift for 2025/26, with GPs now receiving a growing share of National Health Service resources. For the first time in four years, the General Practitioners Committee England backed the new contract, which includes key reforms to improve access, for instance by making sure patients can request appointments online throughout core hours.