Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps (a) his Department and (b) NHS England have taken to tackle increases in respiratory health conditions in the context of recent changes to GP contracts.

General Practices (GPs) are required to provide services, termed ‘essential services’, to meet the reasonable needs of their registered and temporary patients. This includes providing consultations, referrals and ongoing treatment and care as necessary and appropriate.

Some GP practices may opt into providing additional services over and above this. The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) is a voluntary reward and incentive scheme to help improve the quality of care across GPs. This incentivises practices to undertake specific activities in order to improve prevention and long-term condition management, including tackling respiratory health conditions. In the 2023/24 GP contract, nine QOF indicators (16%) will target tackling respiratory health conditions.

Vaccination against COVID-19 and flu can also support a reduction in cases of respiratory virus during the winter, both amongst the general public and the healthcare workforce. Over 17.4 million doses of an autumn COVID-19 booster were delivered in England over winter 2022/23 and as of 28 February, more than 21.1 million people in England have had their flu jabs.

The vaccine programmes provide necessary protection to those at higher risk of severe illness and are keeping more people out of hospital. The Government encourages all of those who are eligible for vaccinations to come forward.

The Department continues to work with tripartite partners to deliver improvements to vaccinations, including acquiring data to allow for timely and targeted action, and to identify and provide advice on reducing disparities in vaccination coverage.

The tripartite is committed to improving childhood and adult immunisation programmes, driving maximum uptake, and working hard towards re-gaining the United Kingdom’s measles elimination status, and sustaining our rubella and polio status.