General Practitioners: Surrey

(asked on 27th January 2020) - View Source

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 improve access to GPs in Surrey.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 4th February 2020

We recognise general practice is under pressure nationally and we have committed to growing the workforce by 6,000 more doctors in general practice and 6,000 more primary care professionals, to create a further 50 million appointments in general practice a year by 2024/25.

Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care System (ICS) has advised that through Surrey Heartlands Health and Care Partnership, there are a number of initiatives to improve access to general practice services. Significant investment is planned over a five-year period to support the recruitment of new roles working across groups of general practices within Primary Care Networks. Growing the workforce will mean larger teams of staff providing a wide range of care options for patients and will free up more time for doctors to focus on those with more complex needs.

The ICS has further advised Surrey Heartlands has commissioned local federations to provide additional access to appointments to general practice services from 8am to 8pm. These appointments are provided either face to face or through digital consultations. Patients are able to access general practice appointments across hubs in Surrey Heartlands 365 days a year, including Bank Holidays. During the period from 1 April 2019 to 31 December 2019, Surrey Heartlands offered an additional 90,082 appointments, on top of those offered during general practitioner practice core hours.

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