Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the pressures on GPs as a result of the increase in the number of appointments by 18 per cent over the last 12 months.

On 14 October we announced a new £250 million Winter Access Fund, to help general practices to meet increased demand through existing staff, the digital locum pool framework or to fund extra administrative staff.

We have also committed to increasing and diversifying the general practice workforce, through our schemes to boost recruitment and retention. As of September 2021, there were 1,841 more full time equivalent doctors in general practice compared to September 2019.