Stephen Kinnock

Stephen Kinnock

Labour — Aberafan Maesteg

Speaking in the House of Commons on 23 June 2025

Debate

Access to GPs

Contribution

If the hon. Member could write to me on that issue, I would be more than happy to look into it. I am always keen to help hon. Members to get their ICBs to move in the right direction. We have directly provided £61 million to assist the expansion of the multidisciplinary team approach across Northern Ireland, which will help to stabilise primary care, focus on the prevention and management of conditions away from hospital settings, and better utilise the skills of the community and voluntary sector. We will provide additional funding by 2028-29 to bring back the family doctor by supporting the training of thousands more GPs and delivering millions more appointments over the spending review period, and will build further on the 1,700 additional GPs who have already been recruited. Through these improvements, we are making a difference to patient satisfaction: the latest health insight survey shows a sustained improvement in satisfaction, with 72.5% of patients who contacted their general practices in the past 28 days reporting a good overall experience—up from 67.4% in July 2024. This Government are delivering concrete results, because we believe that everyone deserves access to high-quality care closer to home. I am delighted that general practitioners committee England voted in favour of this year’s GP contract in March. This is the first time the contract has been accepted in four years. The agreement resets our relationship and marks a turning point—a shared commitment to work together on behalf of patients and practitioners alike. The changes in the contract will streamline targets for GPs, incentivise improved continuity of care, make progress towards our health mission and, crucially, require practices to make it possible for patients to go online to request an appointment throughout the duration of core opening hours. Those changes are backed by an extra £889 million, representing cash growth of more than 7% in overall contract investment. The NHS belongs to the people. Those are not just my words; they are in the NHS constitution. Everything that this Government have done since the election has been geared towards saving the NHS, giving it back to the people and getting it back on its feet. We are putting power back into the hands of patients, where it rightly belongs, because this is their health service and it must work for them. Ensuring that every patient has access to the care that they need is not just a priority, but a promise.

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