Tom Blenkinsop – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Blenkinsop on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to target the recruitment of new GPs to practices with high levels of clinical need and deprivation.

Mr Philip Dunne

NHS England, Health Education England (HEE), the British Medical Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners (GPs) have been working together to support recruitment in areas to which it has traditionally been hard to recruit to.

NHS England is offering £20,000 bursaries to attract over 100 GP trainees to work in areas of the country where GP training places have been unfilled for a number of years. The offer is open to GP trainees committed to working for three years in one of the locations. The initiative is designed to relieve pressure on some of the GP practices in England currently facing the most severe recruitment challenge.

The GP Forward View complements the 10 point plan that was introduced in January 2015. A £10 million investment was announced by NHS England from the infrastructure fund to kick start a new plan to expand the general practice workforce. The money is being used to recruit new GPs, retain those that are thinking of leaving the profession, encourage doctors to return to general practice and to develop a multi-professional workforce. HEE is responsible for five areas of the 10 Point Plan:

– Promoting General Practice;

– Improve Breadth of Training;

– Training Hubs;

– New Ways of Working (which includes the Primary Care Workforce Commission); and

– Easy Return to Practice.