Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to (a) help prevent burnout and (b) increase the capacity of postgraduate GP trainers.

We hugely value the critical role that general practitioners (GPs) play, and we are determined to address the issues they face. We recognise that burnout among postgraduate GP trainers is a risk that needs to be tackled, as highlighted in the General Medical Council’s National Trainer Survey. We will continue to work with the National Health Service and profession to understand how we can help GPs and improve their working environment.

The Government is committed to reducing bureaucracy and paperwork for GPs, an intention we stated at the Royal College of General Practitioners Annual Conference earlier this month. This will be an important step in reducing burnout risk, which is often reported to be due to workload challenges.

NHS England is working to expand GP trainer numbers in addition to the number of trainees, and has made changes to the delivery of GP specialty training to better support trainees and to support trainers and educators, such as piloting blended learning and standardising entry and approval requirements.