Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he plans to take to improve the service provided by general practitioners; and if he will make a statement.

The Department has recently set out its ambitions for primary care in publishing Transforming Primary Care. A copy has been placed in the Library. The changes to the general practitioner (GP) contract for this year will help ensure that patients aged over 75 and those with the most complex needs receive more personalised and proactive care.

The Government has also invested £50 million, through the Prime Minister's Challenge Fund, to develop new ways of improving access to GP services.

The Department has recognised the need to increase the GP workforce and between September 2010 and September 2013, the number of full time equivalent GPs has risen by 1,051. Additionally, the Department has included in the Health Education England (HEE) mandate a requirement that “HEE will ensure that 50% of trainees completing foundation level training enter GP training programmes by 2016”.