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 number of GPs in Leicester.

We are working to increase the general practice (GP) workforce across England, including in Leicester. This includes measures to boost recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession, and encourage them to return to practice.

NHS England has allocated £1.9 million of emergency short-term funding this year for the recruitment of newly qualified GPs in Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland. The Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board (LLR ICB) has communicated the available funding for additional resource to each Primary Care Network, with guidance on how it can be most effectively used across the ICB area.

In order to offer wider opportunities beyond the standard recruitment platforms, the LLR ICB is also enabling its GPs to widen their candidate search by utilising the LLR Local Medical Committee’s recruitment channel. The ICB continues to work closely with NHS England Workforce Training and Education to ensure they maximise the number of GP trainees that they take in LLR, which also helps with longer term recruitment and retention.