Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the availability of face-to-face GP appointments on trends in the number of young people opting for (a) online and (b) telephone GP appointments.

No such assessment has been made. However, our Primary Care Recovery Plan sets out how by improving digital access to general practice, we will free up capacity for those patients who prefer to contact their practice by telephone or in person.

Face-to-face alongside remote appointments provide a choice of access routes for patients and additional flexibility and convenience. We expect patients to experience the same high quality of care regardless of how they access their general practice, and patients unable to access remote appointments should be offered an alternative appointment type.