Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to improve the recruitment and retention of GPs in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England.

We are working with NHS England and Health Education England to increase the general practice (GP) workforce in England, including Coventry and the West Midlands. This includes measures to boost recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession, and encourage them to return to practice.

The updated GP Contract Framework announced a number of new schemes, alongside continued support for existing recruitment and retention schemes for the general practice workforce.

To boost recruitment, we have increased the number of GP training places. Last year, we saw the highest ever number of doctors accepting a place on GP training, a record 4,032 trainees, up from 2,671 in 2014.