Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress is being made to improve North East Somerset & Hanham patient access to GPs.

We are expanding capacity in general practice and delivering more appointments to patients. North East Somerset and Hanham sit within the NHS Somerset Integrated Care Board area, which has seen a 9.4% rise in the number of general practice appointments delivered over the past year, with 304,000 appointments delivered in September 2025 compared to 278,000 appointments delivered in September 2024. This is above the national average increase of 6.6%.

In October 2024, we have invested £160 million into the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme and given additional flexibilities to recruit 2,500 new general practitioners into primary care networks across England. We have invested an additional £1.1 billion in general practice to reinforce the front door of the NHS. This is the biggest increase in over a decade. Additionally, the new £102 million Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund will create additional clinical space within over 1,000 general practices across England to deliver 8.3 million more appointments each year.