Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what progress the Government has made on recruiting more GPs in (a) Devon and (b) Plymouth.

The General Practice Forward View (GPFV), published in April 2016, sets out that the Government is investing an extra £2.4 billion a year nationally for general practice services by 2020/21, with the set aim to have an extra 5,000 doctors working in general practice in England by 2020.

NHS England’s South West Development Fund is being used to implement the GPFV locally, with a team of change managers – including one in Plymouth – in place to support practices and make them more sustainable and attractive to new doctors. In addition, Health Education England’s south west team has been active in promoting general practice as a career both by working with national incentives and addressing local opportunities.