Derek Twigg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Derek Twigg on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to increase the retention rate of doctors working in general practice.

Alistair Burt

The number of full time equivalent doctors working in general practice has increased by 1,677 since September 2010.

The Department has committed to further increasing the primary and community care workforce by 10,000 by 2020, including an additional 5,000 doctors working in general practice. In January 2015, NHS England, Health Education England, the Royal College of General Practitioners and the British Medical Association’s General Practitioners Committee published Building the Workforce, a ten point plan to address general practitioner (GP) workforce issues.

The ten point plan includes actions to improve retention, as well as to increase recruitment and support GPs to return to practice. As part of this work, NHS England has commissioned a detailed review to identify the most effective measures to encourage experienced GPs to remain in practice.