General Practitioners: Tunbridge Wells
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has been made of the performance of NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board in improving access to GP services in the Tunbridge Wells constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock
We are increasing general practice (GP) capacity and funding to improve access, outcomes, and patient satisfaction. This commitment will continue over the next five years. The Department has had no direct communication with the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board.
We are investing an additional £601 million in GPs in 2026/27, bringing total spend on the GP Contract to approximately £14 billion. This builds on the £1.1 billion increase in 2025/26, the largest uplift in over a decade. Since October 2024, £160 million has supported over 2,000 more GPs in primary care networks across England. Additionally, the 2026/27 contract also introduces a practice-level GP reimbursement scheme, backed by £292 million, to help practices recruit more GPs or expand sessions.
Tunbridge Wells sits within the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board. 9,000 more GP appointments were delivered in the 12 months to May 2026 compared to the year previous. Additionally, the 2025 General Practice Patient Survey found that 70% of patients rated their overall experience of their practice as “good” in 2025, an increase of 5% since 2023.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England and that includes assessing for the quality of GP premises. There are 14 GP services in the Tunbridge Wells constituency, all with an overall CQC rating of ‘good’.
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