I know that a number of residents have experienced difficulties booking appointments and accessing test results at their GP surgery.
That is why today I asked the Health Secretary about what more can be done to improve GP surgeries’ accessibility.
Whilst there is still more work to be done, I’m pleased that the number of face-to-face appointments is increasing and the NHS is committed to making it easier for patients to access their test results via the NHS App.
Suzanne Webb MP
What progress he has made on recruiting 26,000 primary care staff?
Health Secretary, Sajid Javid MP
The Government’s commitment to deliver 50 million more general practice appointments is critical for improving access to primary care across the country. Our workforce are crucial for that, and we are well on track to deliver 26,000 more full-time primary care staff by March 2024, with more than 18,000 primary care staff already recruited since 2019.
Suzanne Webb MP
I thank my Rt Hon Friend for that answer. Does he agree that when it comes to accessing primary care services, the Government have given GPs the support and guidance that they need and that GPs must now make every effort to see our constituents face to face, which is what they expect? What more can be done to support GP practices to make their processes more efficient for patient access to test results and blood tests and for booking appointments?
Health Secretary, Sajid Javid MP
I agree with my hon. Friend and am incredibly grateful, as she is, for the huge contribution of GPs during the pandemic in helping to deliver the largest vaccination programme that the NHS has ever seen. Because of the pandemic, we also provided record support to GPs that helped to cut bureaucracy, helped them to share their workload and helped clinicians to give even more support to patients.
We are starting to see the results of that, with face-to-face appointments going up—we would like to see them go up much further. We would also like to see increases in appointments, including for access to blood tests. My hon. Friend might know that yesterday we published our new data strategy, which sets out how, using the NHS app, we will give more people access to their health results.
