Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the impact on general practice of transferring hospital outpatient elective follow-ups to general practice; and if he will make a statement.

NHS England and NHS Improvement launched the National Outpatient Transformation Programme in April 2020. The programme supports patients through improving general practitioners’ access to specialist advice and guidance and empowering patients to initiate follow-up appointments when needed.

However, its aim is not to transfer hospital outpatient elective follow up appointments to general practice. NHS England and NHS Improvement commissioned an independent evaluation to review primary care experiences of advice and guidance services. While qualitative reports showed that it placed time and resource demands on primary care, it can reduce waiting times for specialist input and unnecessary referrals.