General Practitioners: Training

(asked on 24th April 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that training and development opportunities are available to staff in GP surgeries to help them to recognise loneliness and know where to refer people for help.


Answered by
 Portrait
David Mowat
This question was answered on 27th April 2017

The General Practice Forward View (GPFV), published by NHS England in April 2016, listed 10 High Impact Actions that help general practitioner practices to release time for care and provide more accessible and innovative care for their patients which includes social prescribing.

Social prescribing commonly addresses needs relating to social isolation, long term mental health issues and other personal challenges are not best addressed through medical treatment.

The GPFV implementation programme is continuing to gather evidence about successful ways to use social prescribing. Evidence to date indicates that both clinicians and patients welcome this approach, and interest among practices is growing steadily.

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