Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to clarify the role of primary care in the NHS winter plan.

NHS England has set out specific roles for primary care in the Winter 2023/24 system letter. Specifically, systems are asked to prioritise the ‘Delivery Plan for Recovering Access to Primary Care’, focusing on interventions that may support admission avoidance including:

- self directed care

- increasing capacity through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme

- improving and expanding access to general practice and community pharmacy

- understanding primary care demand and pressures with plans in place to mitigate and respond.