§ Lord Smith of Leighasked Her Majesty's Government:
What plans they have to reduce the wide variation in the proportion of general practitioners to population revealed in the recent health statistics. [HL3475]
§ Lord Hunt of Kings HeathThe National Health Service performance indicators highlighted once again unacceptable variations in capacity, health needs, performance and health outcomes across the NHS.
Following the Comprehensive Spending Review, the Government published plans to increase the number of places in United Kingdom medical schools by about 1,000 and by providing the cash to allow the NHS to take on an extra 7,000 doctors.
The latest data show an increase of 215 in the number of general practitioner registrars since we came to office, with more registrars in post now than at any time since 1993; and we have provided funding for up to 150 additional GP registrar places from this year as well.
We have also introduced personal medical services pilots: a flexible way of delivering family doctor services that are responsive to local needs and therefore particularly suited to address the problems of recruitment and retention in deprived and under-doctored areas.