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 increase the retention of (a) GPs and (b) other primary healthcare staff in North Yorkshire.

We are working with NHS England to increase the general practitioner (GP) workforce in England, including North Yorkshire. This includes measures to boost recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession, and encourage them to return to practice. NHS England has made available several recruitment and retention schemes to boost the general practice workforce. This includes the GP Retention Scheme, the GP Retention Fund, the National GP Induction and Refresher, the Locum Support Scheme, and the Supporting Mentors Scheme.

Through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, Primary Care Networks and practices have recruited over 34,000 additional staff including nursing associates, pharmacists, physiotherapists, and social prescribing link workers, hitting the Government's target to recruit 26,000 a year ahead of the March 2024 target.

The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, published earlier this year by NHS England, sets out the steps the National Health Service and its partners need to take to deliver an NHS workforce, including GPs and other primary healthcare staff, that meets the changing needs of the population over the next 15 years. It will put the workforce on a sustainable footing for the long term.