Written question asked by Baroness Hodge of Barking (Labour) on Wednesday, 12 October 2022, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 17 October 2022. It was answered by Will Quince (Conservative) on Friday, 21 October 2022 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.

General Practitioners: Barking

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has provided additional (a) financial and (b) other support to help tackle (i) patient backlogs and (ii) increased workloads in GP surgeries in Barking constituency.

Answer: The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’, published in February 2022, stated the ambition to reduce patient backlogs for planned National Health Service treatments and the Government plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25. We made £520 million available to expand general practice capacity during the pandemic. This was in addition to at least £1.5 billion announced in 2020 by 2024 which includes supporting increased workloads in general practitioner (GP) surgeries, including in Barking. In September 2022, ‘Our plan for patients’ announced measures to support GP practices increase access and manage workloads, such as the provision of 31,000 phone lines and funding to expand the staff roles working in general practice, including in Barking.

Secondary information