Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to encourage GPs to return to face-to-face appointments.

NHS England and NHS Improvement’s guidance states that general practitioner practices must provide face to face appointments, alongside remote consultations and patients’ input for consultation type should be sought. Preferences for face-to-face care respected unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary.  Excluding COVID-19 vaccinations, 63% of general practice appointments were conducted face-to-face in April 2022.

We have made £520 million available to improve access and expand general practice capacity during the pandemic, in addition to at least £1.5 billion announced in 2020 to create an additional 50 million general practice appointments by 2024.