Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take to reduce stress levels of general practitioners.

The NHS Long Term Plan made a clear commitment to the future of general practice, with primary and community care set to receive at least £4.5 billion more in real terms a year by 2023/24, meaning spending on these services will grow faster than the rising National Health Service budget. Since the launch of the Long Term Plan, NHS England and the British Medical Association’s General Practitioners (GP) Committee have agreed a five-year GP (General Medical Services) contract framework from 2019/20. The new contract framework will be essential to deliver the ambitions set out in the NHS Long Term Plan through strong general practice services. The contract framework will see billions of extra investment for improved access to family doctors, expanded services at local practices and longer appointments for patients who need them. Beyond contract funding, investment worth hundreds of millions of pounds will continue to be made in central programmes benefiting general practice.

In January 2017, NHS England launched the GP Health Service in recognition of GPs reporting they were experiencing stress and mental illness. The NHS GP Health Service is a nationwide, free confidential NHS service for GPs and GP trainees in England. The service can help doctors with issues relating to a mental health concern, including stress or depression, or an addiction problem, particularly where these might affect work. Since its launch, over 2,000 GPs have accessed the service.

The Government recognises that workload is one of the greatest challenges that GPs currently face and a contributor to workplace stress. NHS England has invested £30 million in the Releasing Time for Care Programme which aims to help practices reduce their workload through spreading awareness of innovations and facilitating local health programmes. As of January 2019, the programme had worked with 95% of clinical commissioning groups.

NHS England has also committed to further expanding community based multi-disciplinary teams and will provide funding towards up to 20,000 other staff in primary care networks by 2023/24. This builds on the non-GP clinical staff already working in general practice, and will mean bigger teams of staff, providing a wider range of care options for patients and freeing up more time for GPs to focus on those with more complex needs.