Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his policy is on encouraging people in the health sector to enter general practice.

In 2017 we recruited 3,157 doctors into speciality general practitioner (GP) training places; this was the highest number of GP trainees ever. Health Education England is making 3,250 places available per year.

There are a number of schemes in place to encourage doctors to enter GP speciality training. This includes the “One career endless opportunities. Choose GP” advertising campaign; the Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme which offers a £20,000 bursary to GP trainees committed to spend their three year training programme in “hard to recruit” areas; the Global Health Fellowship which offers overseas placements for GP trainees and the National Institute for Health Research Academic Clinical Fellowship Programme which incorporates academic training into GP speciality training.