Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the shortage of GPs in (a) Hounslow (b) London (c) England.

No specific estimate has been made as there is no recommended minimum number of general practitioners (GPs) within a practice. GPs form part of a multidisciplinary team in primary care and ensuring that the appropriate skills are available in general practice can address workloads and deliver high quality patient care. Through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, we are recruiting 26,000 primary care professionals, with over 18,000 currently in post.

In 2016, we launched the Targeted Enhanced Recruitment Scheme in 2016 which provides a one off financial incentive of £20,000 to attract doctors to train in locations where it has been difficult to recruit staff. In 2021, 550 places were available through the Scheme, with additional Government investment ensuring there will be 800 places in 2022, with six posts in Hounslow and 77 across London.