Oral QuestionDepartment of Health and Social Care

If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

Tabled: 19 April 2023Answered: 25 April 2023

Asked by

Dan Jarvis

LabourBarnsley North

Answering Minister

the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

Answer from Hansard

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Wes Streeting)

The Government inherited a ludicrous situation whereby patients could not get a GP appointment and GPs could not get a job, so one of my first acts was to cut red tape to give practices flexibility to hire GPs, along with an extra £82 million investment. Thanks to that combination of investment and reform, this Government have recruited an additional 1,700 GPs to the frontline since July, exceeding our target of 1,000. We have invested an extra £889 million in general practice this year, taking action to bring back the family doctor. We do not pretend to have solved all the problems, but change has begun and the best is still to come.