Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to retain the GP partnership model.

We remain committed to the general practice (GP) partnership model and recognise its many strengths, including efficiency, innovation, and continuity of care. GP partnerships deliver high-quality care to patients all over the country. As set out in the 10-Year Health Plan, where the GP partnership model is working well, it should continue.

We also recognise that increasingly fewer GPs are going into partnership, and that the partnership model is not the only model currently delivering GPs. GPs can and do choose to organise themselves in different ways, many of which cite evidence of good outcomes in terms of staff engagement and patient experience.

Alongside the partnership model, the 10-Year Health Plan commits to introducing two new contracts enabling GPs to work over larger geographies, with the aim of supporting the neighbourhood health model, providing resilience and allowing economies of scale, thereby securing the sustainability of GPs into the future.