PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
General Practitioners: Recruitment (7 June 2023)

The Department recognises that general practice teams remain under pressure and are working hard to support their communities. General practice is delivering 10% more appointments each month compared to before the pandemic, the equivalent of the average practice seeing about 20 additional patients every working day.

However, we know demand will grow as the population lives for longer with complex conditions, and that some patients struggle to contact and access their practice services in a timely way. That is why on 9 May 2023 we published our Delivery Plan for Recovering Access to Primary Care, which included the commitment to launch Pharmacy First so that by the end of 2023 community pharmacies can supply prescription only medicines for seven common conditions. Together with expanding pharmacy oral contraception and blood pressure services this could save ten million appointments in general practice a year, subject to consultation.

In addition to the measures outlined above, we are investing at least £1.5 billion to create an additional 50 million general practice appointments by 2024, by increasing and diversifying the workforce.