Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to restore the provision of in-person GP appointments.

General practice is open and has been throughout the pandemic, and people should continue to access services by phone, online or in person. The way in which people can access general practice services during COVID-19 has changed. Practices are offering more triage and remote consultations, video and online, to see as many patients as possible while protecting staff and patients from avoidable risk of infection. Practices continue to undertake routine and preventative work including vaccinations and immunisations and screening, as well as supporting their more high-risk patients with ongoing care needs.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have issued guidance on the importance of continuing to offer face to face appointments, utilising remote triage, making use of online and telephone consultations where appropriate, whilst considering the needs of those unable to access or engage with digital services. On 7 January 2021 NHS England and NHS Improvement set out further details on the actions to release capacity in general practice as well as priorities for the next quarter. This includes maintaining routine appointments, supporting the clinically extremely vulnerable and those with ‘long’ COVID-19, and continuing to make progress in the backlog of appointments.

General practice appointment levels are now close to pre-pandemic numbers. In February 2021, an estimated 23.5 million appointments were booked in general practice in England - an average of 1.19 million per working weekday to 1.24 million appointments per working weekday in February 2020. In February 2021, 13 million appointments were face to face, which is 55.3% of all appointments.