Douglas Carswell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2014-06-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to train and recruit more GPs in (a) Linton and Walton and (b) nationally.

Dr Daniel Poulter

The Department set up Health Education England (HEE) to deliver a better health and healthcare workforce for England. HEE is responsible for ensuring a secure workforce supply for the future balancing need against demand, taking into account factors such as the age profile of the existing workforce, the impact of technology, and new drugs.

The Department has recognised the need to increase the general practitioner (GP) workforce and between September 2010 and September 2013, the number of full time equivalent GPs has risen by 1,051. Additionally, the Department has included in the HEE mandate a requirement that “HEE will ensure that 50% of trainees completing foundation level training enter GP training programmes by 2016”.