General Practitioners: Workforce Debate
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Lord Turnberg
Main Page: Lord Turnberg (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Turnberg's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(6 years, 2 months ago)
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Lord O’Shaughnessy
My noble friend is absolutely right. As well as our commitment to increase the number of GPs by 5,000, we also have a commitment to increase the number of GP practice staff by 5,000, including 1,500 pharmacists, who provide exactly the kind of support she outlined.
Lord Turnberg (Lab)
My Lords, one of the reasons why general practice is less attractive than it used to be is because of the enormous bureaucratic load that is placed on GPs nowadays. They have to sit on committees and on CCGs, and they rush around doing non-clinical work. Is there any way to reduce this non-clinical workload?
Lord O’Shaughnessy
That is an important issue. We know that workload is a problem. I point the noble Lord and other noble Lords to NHS England’s 10 high-impact actions. These are actions which all GP surgeries can take; for instance, using technology such as e-booking and e-prescribing to reduce the kind of workload he is talking about.