Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 5 May 2020 to Question 40964, on General Practitioners, whether receptionists in GP practices are required to ask a GP or other healthcare worker to assess whether the treatment requested is regarded as an emergency or immediately necessary; and if he will make a statement.

NHS England and NHS Improvement have advised all general practitioner (GP) practices to move to a total triage model to protect patients and staff from avoidable risks of infection from COVID-19. This model enables practices to ensure that the most appropriate member of staff can respond to requests from patients and that urgent requests can be managed as a priority. Any request that requires a clinical view will be referred to either a GP or another member of the clinical team to be followed up, this might be via a phone call, a video call or a face to face appointment.