Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help improve access to GPs.
We have committed to supporting general practice to deliver an additional 50 million general practice appointments a year by expanding and diversifying the workforce. During the pandemic, £520 million was made available to improve access and expand general practice capacity, in addition to at least £1.5 billion announced in 2020. NHS England and NHS Improvement are also offering an interim telephony solution, which enables practices to use Microsoft Teams to increase capacity for incoming calls, while a longer-term strategic approach is developed.