Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to support GP surgeries in Yeovil constituency to process appointment requests.

Practices are supported to increase capacity through Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) reimbursement funding for primary care networks’ staff costs. As of April 2026, this can be claimed for any general practice (GP) doctor as well as for expanding multi-disciplinary teams, for example, pharmacists, paramedics, and care coordinators. In addition, implementation of the new practice-level GP reimbursement scheme supports practices to increase same-day access, including enabling the employment of additional GPs or extra sessional time. This supports patients being seen by the most appropriate clinician, improving flow and reducing pressure on GP appointments.

NHS Somerset Integrated Care Board is working with the General Practice Support Unit to deliver practice-level support across all practices, including, but not limited to, Yeovil. This includes Supportive Learning Framework conversations, organisational development and general resilience support. The programme supports implementation of the new GP contract and the transition to modern general practice models, including total triage.

NHS England has published resources on modern general practice and best practice for processing appointment requests, which are available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/gp/national-general-practice-improvement-programme/resources/