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 maintain the level of out-of-hours GP cover in Romford constituency.

In Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge, several health services work together to ensure local people can access NHS services seven days a week and out of hours.

The Government is improving access to general practitioner (GP) services and everyone will soon be able to access routine GP appointments at evenings and weekends as part of our plan for a seven-day National Health Service.

Evening and weekend general practice appointments are routinely available across the country now to enable patients to find appointments at a time convenient to them, with millions of patients having already benefitted from this.

This also provides additional capacity to help to reduce some of the pressure on general practice and the wider system.

NHS England, working with stakeholders, is undertaking a national review of access to general practice services. The review’s main objective is to improve patient access both in hours and at evenings and weekends and reduce unwarranted variation in experience.

Additionally, urgent treatment centres will provide access to walk-in minor illness and minor injury services, with new standards developed to ensure they offer a full range of services.