Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve recruitment and retention of general practitioners in Bristol North East.

Since October 2024 we have funded primary care networks with an additional £160 million to recruit recently qualified general practitioners (GPs) through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS). In the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board (ICB) 44 GPs have been recruited via the scheme since October 2024.

Within the 2025/26 GP Contract, a number of changes have been confirmed to increase the flexibility of ARRS and allow primary care networks to respond better to local workforce needs. This includes GPs and practice nurses included in the main ARRS funding pot, an uplift of the maximum reimbursable rate for GPs in the scheme, and no caps on the number of GPs that can be employed through the scheme.

We are investing an additional £1.1 billion into GPs to reinforce the front door of the National Health Service, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to £13.4 billion in 2025/26. This is the biggest cash increase in over a decade and will facilitate the recruitment of GPs. The 8.9% boost to the GP Contract in 2025/26 is greater than the 5.8% growth to the NHS budget as a whole.

The Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICB also has a successful GP and Nurse fellowship scheme to support retention of staff.