Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he will take to ensure waiting times for GP appointments are reduced in Wycombe.

The NHS Long Term Plan, published in January 2019, made a clear commitment to the future of general practice, with primary and community care set to receive at least £4.5 billion more a year by 2023/24, in real terms.

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

Buckinghamshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) advises that a key focus in the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West (BOB) integrated care system plan submission for delivering the objectives of the Long Term Plan is providing access to services closer to home for residents. Irrespective of where residents live in Buckinghamshire, every patient with an urgent care need will be able to access same-day primary care (in or out of hours). This will not necessarily be face-to-face and with a general practitioner (GP), but could be online with advice, telephone consultations and with other members of the primary care team. Work is already underway to deliver technological solutions, such as online consultations, in 2019/20. Improved access and seven-day working have been in place since October 2018 across BOB, offering routine appointments in the evening and at weekends.

In August 2019, 82.61% of general practice appointments in the Buckinghamshire CCG region took place within two weeks of booking.