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Dept of Health

Answer

Mr. Cummings: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what measures he is taking to improve doctor/patient ratios within the area covered by the Easington Primary Care Group; and if he will make a statement. [144294] Mr. Denham: The average list sizes for general practitioner principals in the Easington Primary Care Group (PCG) area is 2,085 patients per GP. While this is larger than the national average of 1,845 patients per GP, it does not take into account the number of non-principals working in the area. If salaried doctors and GP principals are taken together, the current ratio of doctors to patients in Easington is 1,967. Currently salaried doctor (non-principal) recruitment has largely taken place in those practices with Personal Medical Services (PMS) pilots. Since the first pilots commenced in Easington in October 1999 2.8 whole time equivalent salaried GPs have been recruited to the area. Approval for five more practices to become PMS pilots has been announced and this will lead to the recruitment of four more salaried GPs for an October 2001 start. Following this planned recruitment the average GP list size for Easington would fall to 1,849 which meets the national average and would better help the PCG address the health needs of its population.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

360 c551W; 144294

Session

2000-01

Subjects

Doctors General practitioners Patients Primary care Pilot schemes Primary care groups Easington Ratios

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk