General Practitioners: Standards
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is on track to meet its target for GP appointment waiting times by the end of the Parliament.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock
The Government is determined to make it easier for everyone to see a general practitioner (GP) when they need to, by improving access to appointments. We will bring back the family doctor, train thousands more GPs, guarantee a face-to-face appointment for all those who want one, and end the 8:00am scramble for appointments by delivering a modern booking system.
We have invested £82 million into ARRS (Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme) which has enabled the recruitment of over 1,500 recently qualified GPs across England since October 2024 which will increase the number of appointments available, benefitting thousands of patients that are struggling to access care.
We’ve also just delivered the biggest boost to GP funding in years, with an £889 million uplift to the GP Contract for 2025/26, with GPs now receiving a growing share of National Health Service resources. For the first time in four years, the General Practitioners Committee England backed the new contract, which includes key reforms to improve access, for instance by making sure patients can request appointments online throughout core hours.
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