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, what steps his Department is taking to (a) recruit and (b) retain General Practitioner doctors in (i) North Cornwall constituency and (ii) other rural areas.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In the North Cornwall constituency, as of 30 April 2025, there were 61.5 full time equivalent (FTE) doctors in general practices (GPs), an increase of 2.4 FTE compared to April 2024.
We acknowledge the urgent challenge of ensuring that rural areas have the resources to continue serving their patients and that patients can access primary healthcare in rural areas. To address this, we are increasing capacity in practices by recruiting more GPs, ensuring the necessary workforce is in place to provide integrated, patient-centred services.
We have invested £82 million into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, which has enabled the recruitment of over 1,700 recently qualified GPs across England since October 2024. This will increase the number of available appointments, secure the future pipeline of GPs, and alleviate the pressure on those currently working in the system. We’ve also delivered the biggest boost to GP funding in years, an £889 million uplift, with GPs now receiving a growing share of National Health Service resources. The new 2025/26 GP Contract includes key reforms to improve access to GPs, including making sure patients can request appointments online throughout core hours.
Our commitment to growing the GP workforce includes addressing the reasons why doctors leave the profession and encouraging them to return to practice. We know that high workloads can be a key driver for GPs reducing their contracted hours or leaving the profession altogether. That’s why we are tackling morale through drivers such as growing the workforce and reducing bureaucracy through our Red Tape Challenge to improve job satisfaction and reduce the risk of burnout.
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, what steps his Department is taking to increase the uptake of HPV vaccines.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the Hon. Member for Rotherham on 5 March 2025 to Question 31921.
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 potential impact of high-density retirement housing schemes in rural areas that do not have corresponding funding for local healthcare infrastructure on demand for (a) GPs, (b) ambulances and (c) other NHS services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to delivering a National Health Service that is fit for the future, and this means we require world class infrastructure across the NHS estate. We recognise the challenges that areas of significant housing and population growth can place on primary care infrastructure.
Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning, planning, securing, and monitoring health services within their system boundaries through delegated responsibility from NHS England. The NHS has a statutory duty to ensure there are sufficient medical services, including general practices, in each local area. It should take account of population growth and demographic changes associated with new retirement developments, alongside other housing growth.
Integrated care systems’ estates infrastructure strategies have been developed to create a long-term plan for future estate requirements and investment for each local area and its needs. These strategies help manage existing estates and take any future requirements into account when considering how best to deliver local services.
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, what assessment his Department has made of the challenges in the recruitment of (a) General Practitioners and (b) GP nurses in (i) North Cornwall constituency and (ii) rural areas.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We acknowledge the urgent challenge of ensuring that rural areas such as those in North Cornwall have the resources needed to service their patients, and to ensure that patients can access primary healthcare. To address this, we are increasing capacity in general practice by recruiting primary care workforce staff such as nurses and general practitioners through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, ensuring the necessary workforce is in place to provide integrated, patient-centred services.
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 consider the potential merits of allocating funding for the (a) building of and (b) supplying of specialised equipment to new, purpose-built dental practices.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including National Health Service dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards across England.
The NHS contracts with independent dental providers, to deliver NHS dental treatment in primary care settings.
Dental practices can make decisions on the buildings and specialised equipment which suit their needs, providing they remain compliant with the relevant regulations.
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 new NHS (a) nurses and (b) doctors will complete training in the next 12 months.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department estimates a range of between 19,000 and 22,500 nurses trained in England joining the Nursing and Midwifery Council register for the first time in the year to March 2026, based on the 23,240 acceptances to English nursing courses in the 2022 cycle, published by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, as part of its undergraduate end of cycle data resources for 2024. These nurses may go on to work in the National Health Service, but also in other settings including social care or for non-NHS providers including some carrying out NHS work.
The numbers of joiners to the General Medical Council (GMC) register who are graduates of education courses in England has been increasing as medical school intakes have been expanded. We estimate between 8,000 and 8,500 doctors will join the GMC register having qualified from English universities during 2025.
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 (a) nurse and (b) doctor vacancies there are in the NHS.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England publishes a compendium of NHS Vacancy Statistics each quarter. The information currently provides four measures of the level of vacancies in the National Health Service, one of which includes the number of medical and registered nursing vacancies reported by NHS trusts to NHS England, which is the most commonly used measure.
Detailed information on the definition of collected data and the available timeseries, along with the measure’s strengths and weaknesses, can be found at the following link:
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-vacancies-survey
Data for the period to March 2025 was published on 29 May 2025.
Due to the complex nature of how NHS vacancy data is defined and collected, all data sources should be treated with a degree of caution.
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 NHS (a) nurses and (b) doctors are expected to (i) leave and (ii) retire in the next year.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold estimates of the number of nurses and doctors expected to leave the National Health Service or retire in the next year.
The Government is committed to making the NHS the best place to work, to ensure we retain more of our skilled and dedicated staff. NHS England is leading work nationally through its retention programme to drive a consistent, system-wide approach to staff retention across NHS trusts. This ensures trusts have access to proven retention strategies, data-driven monitoring, and can foster a more stable, engaged, productive, and supported workforce.
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, what steps his Department is taking to improve the (a) diagnosis, (b) treatment pathways and (c) levels of clinical awareness of Postural Tachycardia Syndrome in the NHS.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is the responsibility of local integrated care boards to work with clinicians, service users, and patient groups to develop services and care pathways that are convenient and that meet the needs of patients with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (PoTS).
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has published a clinical knowledge summary on the clinical management of blackouts and syncope, that provides advice for clinicians in the United Kingdom on best practice in the assessment and diagnosis of PoTS. This was last updated in November 2023, and is available at the following link:
https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/blackouts-syncope/diagnosis/assessment/
General practitioners (GPs) are asked to investigate symptoms to ensure that it is not misdiagnosed. Following referral, patients are treated within National Health Service cardiology and neurology services. Where more specialist advice is required, a referral will be made to an appropriate clinician.
To improve awareness of PoTS amongst healthcare professionals, and specifically GPs, the Royal College of General Practitioners provides training on PoTS as part of its Syncope toolkit, which is available at the following link:
https://elearning.rcgp.org.uk/course/view.php?id=500
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 his Department will make an assessment of the potential barriers to access to Primary Healthcare in rural areas.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We acknowledge the urgent challenge of ensuring that rural areas have the resources needed to continue serving their patients. To address this, we are increasing capacity in general practices by recruiting more general practitioners (GPs), ensuring the necessary workforce is in place to provide integrated, patient-centred services.
We have invested £82 million into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme which has enabled the recruitment of over 1,500 recently qualified GPs across England since October 2024. This will increase the number of available appointments, secure the future pipeline of GPs, and alleviate the pressure on those currently working in the system.
We have also delivered the biggest boost to GP funding in years, an £889 million uplift, with GPs now receiving a growing share of National Health Service resources. The new 2025/26 GP Contract includes key reforms to improve access to GPs, including making sure patients can request appointments online throughout core hours.