Oral QuestionDepartment of Health and Social Care

What assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of patient access to primary care services.

Tabled: 9 October 2024Answered: 15 October 2024

Asked by

Warinder Juss

LabourWolverhampton West

Answering Minister

the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

Answer from Hansard

The Minister for Care (Stephen Kinnock)

As identified in Lord Darzi’s review, primary care is broken. Satisfaction with GP services has fallen from a peak of 80% in 2009 to just 35% last year—a truly damning indictment of 14 years of Tory failure. We will rebuild general practice. We have invested £82 million to recruit 1,000 new GPs, we have launched our red tape challenge, and we are committed to improving continuity of care and ending the 8 am scramble. On primary care more broadly, we are committed to boosting the role of community pharmacies, enabling patients to be treated for certain conditions by their local pharmacists, without the need to see a GP.