Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason Integrated Care Systems are required to review the 20 per cent of GPs with the lowest level of face-to-face patient appointments; and what assessment he has made of the effect of increasing the average number patients seen by a GP during a face-to-face appointment on the overall number of GP appointments that take place.

On 14 October, NHS England and NHS Improvement published ‘Our plan for improving access for patients and supporting general practice’. As part of this work, integrated care systems (ICSs) are asked to evaluate information on their individual practices, including face to face appointments to ensure that general practice has the support, technology and time to deliver the appropriate care for patients.

No specific assessment has been made as data on the number of patients seen during a given appointment is not collected centrally.