Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the adequacy of funding for postnatal checks for new mothers in the General Medical Services contract.

The General Medical Services (GMS) contract requires all practices to provide postnatal checks to new mothers. The funding for these checks is included in the overall reimbursement paid to practices. The general practitioner (GP) contract regulations define the postnatal period as “the period beginning with the conclusion of the delivery of the baby or the patient’s discharge from secondary care services (whichever is the later) and ending on the fourteenth day after the birth”.

While all GMS practices are required to provide maternity medical services, some may exceptionally choose to opt out of providing such services e.g. on workload grounds. Where practices do opt out, it is the responsibility of NHS England to ensure the patients of those practices have access these services e.g. commissioning the service from a nearby alternative practice.