Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans he has to increase the number of GPs; and what steps he is taking to ensure that employment terms and conditions for GPs encourage employment in areas with (a) an elderly demographic and (b) a high workload.

The Government has committed to increasing the primary and community care workforce by 10,000 by 2020, including an additional 5,000 doctors working in general practice. Health Education England, NHS England, the Royal College of General Practitioners (GPs) and the British Medical Association’s GP Committee are working together on a ten point GP workforce plan to boost recruitment, encourage experienced GPs to remain in the profession and support GPs to return to practice.

GP partners are independent contractors rather than National Health Service employees. However, the funding that practices receive does take account of the age profile of its patients and practice workload.

The Carr-Hill formula calculates the share of funding that each practice receives based on its weighted patient list size adjusted for several factors including age. NHS England is currently reviewing the formula and this is intended to adapt it to better reflect deprivation and other factors of the registered practice profile that impact on practice workload. Additionally, the changes to the GP contract for 2014/15 moved funding from the Quality and Outcomes Framework to core practice funding and a new Avoiding Unplanned Admissions enhanced service, which requires practices to proactively case manage vulnerable patients through developing personalised care plans, including identifying a named accountable GP and care coordinator.