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Written Question
General Practitioners: Finance
Thursday 31st October 2024

Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much (a) funding and (b) other resources his Department is providing to GP practices to help meet the demand for appointments in the (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26 financial year.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

We hugely value the critical role that general practitioners (GPs) play, and we are determined to address the issues they face by shifting the focus of the National Health Service beyond hospitals and into the community. GPs and primary care have been receiving a smaller proportion of NHS resources over time, and we’re committed to reversing that.

On 28 February 2024, NHS England published details of the changes to the GP contract for 2024/25, including an overall increase in funding of £259 million, taking overall contract investment to £11,864 million in 2024/25. The 2024/25 contract at that point included a 2% planning assumption for pay, which was used to uplift the GP contract from 1 April 2024. We turned to the independent pay review body, the Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration Board (DDRB), for a recommendation on pay for 2024/25.

We have accepted the DDRB’s recommendations in full and, following consultation with the British Medical Association, we uplifted the pay element of the GP contract by 6% on a consolidated basis, an increase of 4% on top of the 2% interim uplift in April, to provide practices with funding to uplift GP partners, salaried GPs, and other salaried staff pay by 6%. The global sum element of the contract has been increased by 7.4% to fund the 6% increase in pay.

Departmental expenditure limits for 2025/26 will be set alongside the Budget in October. The overall GP contract investment in 2025/26 will be determined afterwards.


Written Question
General Practitioners: North Cornwall
Tuesday 23rd July 2024

Asked by: Ben Maguire (Liberal Democrat - North Cornwall)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many full-time equivalent GPs were working in North Cornwall constituency in the latest period for which figures are available.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government has committed to training thousands more general practitioners (GPs) across the country, to take the pressure off those currently working in the system, and NHS England has made a number of recruitment and retention schemes available to GPs. In addition, the Government will bring back the family doctor, incentivising GPs to see the same patient, so that ongoing or complex conditions are dealt with effectively.

NHS England is working with practices in North Cornwall to create greater sustainability and offers a GP retainer scheme, which provides support to those returning to GP work. Practices are also supported with access to the primary care training hub which provides recruitment, development, and retention programmes, a general practice staff bank for Cornwall practices which helps provide short term locum support, and relocation funding that, following a successful application, can assist with recruiting for hard-to-fill roles.

In May 2024, the latest period for which data is available, there were 60.2 full time equivalent (FTE) doctors in GPs in the North Cornwall constituency, and an average of 5.8 FTE doctors in GPs per 10,000 registered patients.


Written Question
General Practitioners: North Cornwall
Tuesday 23rd July 2024

Asked by: Ben Maguire (Liberal Democrat - North Cornwall)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the GP-to-patient ratio in North Cornwall constituency.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government has committed to training thousands more general practitioners (GPs) across the country, to take the pressure off those currently working in the system, and NHS England has made a number of recruitment and retention schemes available to GPs. In addition, the Government will bring back the family doctor, incentivising GPs to see the same patient, so that ongoing or complex conditions are dealt with effectively.

NHS England is working with practices in North Cornwall to create greater sustainability and offers a GP retainer scheme, which provides support to those returning to GP work. Practices are also supported with access to the primary care training hub which provides recruitment, development, and retention programmes, a general practice staff bank for Cornwall practices which helps provide short term locum support, and relocation funding that, following a successful application, can assist with recruiting for hard-to-fill roles.

In May 2024, the latest period for which data is available, there were 60.2 full time equivalent (FTE) doctors in GPs in the North Cornwall constituency, and an average of 5.8 FTE doctors in GPs per 10,000 registered patients.


Deposited Papers

Sep. 10 2008

Source Page: Table showing the number of general practitioners, and the number per 100,000 population for each year from 2003 to 2007, broken down by SHA and PCT. 4 p.
Document: DEP2008-2209.xls (Excel)

Found: Table showing the number of general practitioners, and the number per 100,000 population for each year


Written Question
Integrated Care Boards: General Practitioners
Tuesday 10th September 2024

Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will put in place oversight of integrated care boards that frequently commission services from GP practices that regularly underperform in patient satisfaction surveys.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

We recognise that despite the hard work of general practice teams, patients are still struggling to access care from general practitioners (GPs). We know that GPs are delivering record numbers of appointments, however, patient satisfaction has dropped nationally.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) must ensure that GP services meet the needs of the local population, and NHS England has a legal duty to annually assess the performance of each ICB and to publish a summary of its findings. The assessment must consider how well the ICB has discharged its functions, including the duty to improve the quality of services and the duty to make arrangements to involve patients, carers and the public in commissioning plans and decisions that affect them.


Written Question
General Practitioners: South Holland and the Deepings
Monday 14th October 2024

Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many full-time equivalent GPs were working in South Holland and the Deepings constituency on 7 October 2024.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

As of 31 August 2024, the latest period for which data is available, South Holland and the Deepings constituency had 44 full-time equivalent (FTE) fully qualified general practitioners and 70 FTE doctors in general practice, including trainees.


Written Question
Dental Services and General Practitioners: Hitchin
Tuesday 30th July 2024

Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)

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 support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of (i) GPs and (ii) dentists in Hitchin constituency.

Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

We have committed to training thousands more general practitioners (GPs) across the country as well as take pressure off those currently working in the system and NHS England has made a number of recruitment and retention schemes available to GPs.

Getting a National Health Service dentist is increasingly difficult. The Government will tackle the immediate crisis with a rescue plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to areas that need them most.

Hitchin constituency runs across two integrated care boards (ICBs), Hertfordshire & West Essex and Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes. Hertfordshire & West Essex ICB advises that recruitment initiatives include working with Primary Care Network training teams and supporting the training and development of GPs coming into practice. The Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB provides a range of initiatives to support with the recruitment and retention of GPs for its practices. These include a flexible staffing platform, Lantum, which aids retention of GPs by providing flexible roles, and support with workforce planning.


Written Question
General Practitioners: Wellingborough
Monday 15th April 2024

Asked by: Gen Kitchen (Labour - Wellingborough and Rushden)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) support and (b) resources are available to help GP surgeries in Wellingborough constituency to (i) clear patient backlogs and (ii) reduce workloads.

Answered by Andrea Leadsom

We know that general practice (GP) services are still under huge pressure, which is why we published our Delivery Plan for Recovering Access to Primary Care. Our commitment in publishing this plan is to make it easier and quicker for the public to get the help they need from primary care. The plan sets out how we will cut bureaucracy to reduce workload and free up more time for practice teams to meet the clinical needs of their patients.

To achieve this, we are implementing strategies to empower patients to take more control of their healthcare. This involves transitioning towards a Modern General Practice Access model, which includes supporting practices in adopting cloud-based telephony systems, which help GPs to better match their capacity to patient demand. This is backed by £240 million of re-targeted funding for digital tools and training.

We are building additional capacity by diversifying the workforce to include a wider range of practitioners for patients to see, helping free up GP time for more complex cases. This includes an additional 36,523 direct patient care staff, such as pharmacy technicians and physician assistants, since 2019. Additionally, in 2022 a record 4,032 doctors accepted a place on GP training.

We know how implementing changes in GPs will take time, training, and support. That is why from April 2023 the new national General Practice Improvement Programme is supporting GPs to deliver change, with hands on help from a choice of improvement modules that will be tailored to individual practice needs.

The plan is backed up by major investment into primary care services, with up to £645 million over two years to expand the services offered by community pharmacies, with the introduction of Pharmacy First. This has enabled community pharmacists to manage seven common conditions, including the supply of prescription-only medicines without a prescription from a GP. The proposals have the potential to release 10 million GP appointments.


Written Question
Primary Care Networks: General Practitioners
Wednesday 13th March 2024

Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to amend the Additional Role Reimbursement Scheme to allow the scheme to fund additional GPs, and what assessment they have made of the number of GPs now seeking and unable to obtain employment.

Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme aims to grow and diversify the general practice workforce. The scheme provides funding for 26,000 additional roles in primary care networks, to help create bespoke multi-disciplinary teams. General practitioners are not currently included in the scheme as they are a core role within general practice, and the recruitment of general practitioners is currently funded through global sum. We remain committed to growing the general practice workforce as well as number of doctors in general practice. There were 2,799 more full time equivalent doctors working in general practice in December 2023, compared to December 2019.


Written Question
Dementia: General Practitioners
Tuesday 23rd April 2024

Asked by: Elliot Colburn (Conservative - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help improve the knowledge of GPs on the symptoms of young onset dementia.

Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Transport

We want all general practitioners to have received appropriate training, in order to provide high quality care to people with dementia, regardless of the person’s age or individual needs.

The standard of training for health care professionals is the responsibility of the health care independent statutory regulatory bodies who set the outcome standards expected at undergraduate level and approve courses and Higher Education Institutions to write and teach the curricula content that enables their students to meet the regulators outcome standards.

Whilst not all curricula may necessarily highlight a specific condition, they all nevertheless emphasize the skills and approaches a Health Care Practitioner must develop in order to ensure accurate and timely diagnoses and treatment plans for their patients, including for dementia.

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, published on 30 June 2023, sets out NHS England’s commitment to improving training for workers caring for people with dementia.

The Long Term plan also sets out the plan for there to be more healthcare staff working in and with GP practices, which will mean people will be able to get an appointment with the right professional depending on their needs. This means that those with dementia will be able to access the most appropriate support more quickly.

The plan will include more GPs, nurses and 20,000 additional pharmacists, physiotherapists, paramedics, physician associates and social prescribing link. These bigger teams of staff will work with other local services to make sure people, including those with dementia, get better access to a wider range of support for their needs.

We are seeing more people from younger cohorts with multimorbidity. Multimorbidity challenges the specialised approach to medicine, which has improved our ability to successfully treat single diseases. The Long Term Plan also addresses the increased need for medical and other clinical professionals with generalist and core skills to manage and support patients with seemingly unrelated diseases.

There are also a variety of resources available on the NHS England E-learning for Health platform, including a programme on dementia care, designed to enhance the training and education of the health and social care workforce.