Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to ensure residents in a) Newcastle-under-Lyme and b) Staffordshire can access a GP in their local community.

The Government wants everyone to be able to access a primary care professional when they need to. As per the National Health Service constitution, anyone who requires services provided by an NHS general practice (GP) has the right to receive these services, including in Newcastle-under-Lyme and Staffordshire.

We are increasing GP capacity and funding to GPs to improve access and support better health outcomes.

We are investing an additional £601 million in GPs in 2026/27, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to approximately £14 billion. This builds on the £1.1 billion increase in 2025/26, the largest uplift in over a decade.

Since October 2024, £160 million has supported over 2,000 more GPs in primary care networks across England. Additionally, the 2026/27 contract also introduces a practice-level GP reimbursement scheme, backed by £292 million, to help practices recruit more GPs or expand sessions.

Newcastle-under-Lyme and Staffordshire sit within the NHS Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board. In May 2026, 522,000 appointments were delivered, a 0.6% increase from May 2025.