Mentions:
1: Lord Warner (XB - Life peer) medical practitioners (GPs) in England, after taking account of resignations and additional recruits - Speech Link
2: Lord Warner (XB - Life peer) A recent survey by the Royal College of General Practitioners revealed that 57% of GPs are now saying - Speech Link
3: Lord Patel (XB - Life peer) My Lords, what assessment have the Government made of the number of general practitioners required to - Speech Link
4: Lord Naseby (Con - Life peer) in the NHS, similar to the existing contract for men and women in the Armed Forces who are medical practitioners - Speech Link
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, what steps she is taking to help patients see their preferred doctor at GP surgeries.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the importance of the relationship between patients and their general practitioners (GPs). However, in some cases patients may prefer to see another professional from the wider general practice workforce instead of a specific GP.
All patients must be assigned a named GP, and practices must endeavour to comply with all reasonable requests of patients to see a particular GP or other healthcare professional for an appointment. The 2023/24 GP Contract promotes the use of the Royal College of General Practitioners’ Continuity of Care toolkit via the Quality and Outcomes Framework Quality Improvement module.
We are building a diverse workforce of professionals in general practice teams who play an important role in providing and enabling continuity of care for patients.
Mar. 31 2008
Source Page: Guidelines for the appointment of general practitioners with special interests in the delivery of clinical services: headaches. 9 p.Found: Guidelines for the appointment of general practitioners with special interests in the delivery of clinical
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to ensure that all general practice clinicians have access to training on the (a) risk factors and (b) symptoms of liver (i) disease and (ii) cancer.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
General practitioners (GP) are responsible for ensuring their own clinical knowledge, including on liver disease and cancer, remains up-to-date and for identifying learning needs as part of their continuing professional development. This activity should include taking account of new research and developments in guidance, such as that produced by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, to ensure that they can continue to provide high quality care to all patients.
All doctors registered in the United Kingdom are expected to meet the professional standards set out in the General Medical Council’s (GMC’s) Good Medical Practice. In 2012 the GMC introduced revalidation which supports doctors in regularly reflecting on how they can develop or improve their practice, which gives patients confidence that doctors are up to date with their practice, and promotes improved quality of care by driving improvements in clinical governance. The training curricula for postgraduate trainee doctors is set by the Royal College of General Practitioners and must meet the standards set by the GMC.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to increase patient access to GP appointments.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise that despite the hard work of general practice teams, some patients are still struggling to access care in a timely way. That is why we have published our Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care. The plan has two central ambitions: to tackle the 8am rush and reduce the number of people struggling to contact their practice, and for patients to know on the day they contact their practice how their request will be managed.
We will achieve this by rolling out new digital tools and telephone systems which can help practices to better match their capacity to patient demand, backed by £240 million in retargeted funding. The plan also includes further measures to empower patients to do more themselves, cut bureaucracy for general practitioners (GPs) and build capacity to deliver more appointments by diversifying the workforce. We have also increased the number of doctors working in general practice and record numbers of GPs are in training.
We have now delivered on our commitment for 50 million more GP appointments per year, with 364.1 million booked across the last 12 months.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to increase access to GPs.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise that despite the hard work of general practice teams, some patients are still struggling to access care in a timely way. That is why we have published our Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care. The plan has two central ambitions: to tackle the 8am rush and reduce the number of people struggling to contact their practice, and for patients to know on the day they contact their practice how their request will be managed.
We will achieve this by rolling out new digital tools and telephone systems which can help practices to better match their capacity to patient demand, backed by £240 million in retargeted funding. The plan also includes further measures to empower patients to do more themselves, cut bureaucracy for general practitioners (GPs) and build capacity to deliver more appointments by diversifying the workforce. We have also increased the number of doctors working in general practice and record numbers of GPs are in training.
We have now delivered on our commitment for 50 million more GP appointments per year, with 364.1 million booked across the last 12 months.
Asked by: Liam Fox (Conservative - North Somerset)
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 reduce the workload of GPs.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Delivery plan for recovering access to primary care, published by NHS England in May 2023, set out actions on how bureaucracy and workload can be cut by improving the interface between primary and secondary care, cutting unnecessary burdens on general practitioners (GPs) through the Bureaucracy Busting Concordat, published in August 2022, and streamlining the Investment and Impact Fund from 36 to five indicators from 2023/24.
In response to feedback from the profession to make incentive schemes more streamlined and focused, the Department has launched a public consultation on incentive schemes in general practice.
The expanded primary care teams funded through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme add extra clinical capacity, helping to reduce the burden on GPs.
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 - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
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 Evidence Oct. 18 2023
Inquiry: PharmacyFound: PHA0013 - Pharmacy Royal College of General Practitioners Written Evidence
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information her Department holds on the number of registered general practitioners that are unemployed.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The data requested is not held centrally.
As of September 2023, there were 2,690 more full time equivalent (FTE) doctors working in general practice compared to September 2019.
The latest available data (November 2023) shows that there were 37,308 FTE (46,879 headcount) doctors in general practice in England.