Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, under the named GP policy, whether a general practice is allowed to consider that the role of the named GP is for administrative purposes only with the responsibilities being delegated more widely between doctors within that general practice.

The legal responsibilities of the named accountable general practitioner (GP), since the introduction of the named GP scheme in April 2014, do not allow general practices to consider such a role to be for administrative purposes only. This is because patients can request to see a particular GP, although they may have to wait longer for an appointment if they do so.

In addition, further guidance published in March 2015 for the 2015/16 General Medical Services Contract provides further information on named accountable GPs for all patients. It makes clear that “Where the patient expresses a preference as to which GP they have been assigned, the practice must make reasonable efforts to accommodate this request”.