Thank you for contacting me about the funding for GP services.
The Government is committed to fully funding and supporting our National Health Service to deliver the healthcare services that people across the country deserve. This, of course, extends to the funding of GP services.
The Government announced £1.5 billion in 2020 to create an additional 50 million general practice appointments by 2024. In April 2022 there were estimated to be over 25 million GP appointments in England, 65 per cent of which were face-to-face. This was around 10 per cent more appointments per working day than in April 2019.
In the Autumn Statement, the Government announced an additional £8 billion of funding for the NHS and adult social care in England in 2024-25. As part of this, the Government is investing an additional £3.3 billion in each of 2023-24 and 2024- 25 to support the NHS in England, enabling rapid action to improve emergency, elective and primary care, including GP services.
The Government is also supporting the training, retention and recruitment of GPs to help increase the number of appointments. In 2021/22, 4,000 doctors accepted a training place compared to 2,671 doctors in 2014. Furthermore, on 12 August, NHS England announced plans to support GP services through the recruitment of extra social prescribing link workers and care-coordinators to support patients with other needs.
The Government is not only providing funding to support GP practices but is also innovating healthcare delivery to ensure that people across the UK can access GPs more quickly and flexibly. For example, choice of provider at the point of GP referral will be available to all patients from April 2023 at the latest, supported by information to be made available to patients through the NHS App.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
Kind regards,
Graham