General Practitioners

Health written question – answered at on 16 July 2014.

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Photo of Richard Graham Richard Graham Conservative, Gloucester

To ask the Secretary of State for Health

(1) what the targets are on waiting times for appointments within the latest GP contract;

(2) what assessment he has made of the effect on overall satisfaction levels of waiting times for GP appointments; and if he will make a statement.

Photo of Daniel Poulter Daniel Poulter The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health

The general practitioner (GP) contract does not include any targets regarding waiting times for appointments. Under the terms of their contracts, GPs are required to provide primary medical services between 8am to 6.30pm from Monday to Friday to meet the reasonable needs of their patients.

The latest GP patient survey results, published this month, found that 74.6%-of patients rate their overall experience of making an appointment as good.

The Prime Minister's £50 million Challenge Fund will help over 1,100 practices, covering 7.5 million people, to develop new ways of improving GP access, including better access to GPs in evenings and at weekends and greater use of telephone, email and skype consultations.

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Annotations

Robert Palmer
Posted on 17 Jul 2014 6:38 pm (Report this annotation)

Good question by Richard - sadly the answer is much as expected. Monday to Fri does not meet peoples' needs. Also a contract that does not include waiting times for practically anything let alone medical appointments is not worth the back of a fag packet its been written on.

74.6 % - less than three quarters of patients have a good experience. Perhaps Mr Poulter you should have put it that over a quarter of patients think the service is bad - must do better Mr Poulter