Delivering Healthcare Priorities

Delivering Healthcare Priorities

● Alongside the remarkable effort of recovery the Government continues to deliver on the people’s priorities for healthcare.

● There are over 30,000 more nurses working in the NHS now compared to

September 2019, putting us over halfway towards meeting the 50,000 nurse commitment by March 2024.

● We are delivering on our manifesto commitment to build 40 new hospitals.

● We are investing £1.5 billion to create an additional 50 million general practice appointments through growing and diversifying the GP workforce. We are working with NHS England, Health Education England and the profession to increase the GP workforce in England by boosting recruitment, addressing the reasons why doctors leave the profession, and encouraging them to return to practice. Furthermore, the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme enables

Primary Care Networks to recruit a wide range of additional clinical roles for full reimbursement of salary and on-costs.

Key facts

● GP appointment numbers are now above pre-pandemic levels. Excluding

COVID-19 vaccinations appointments, in March 2022 there were 1.29 million average appointments per working day compared to 1.19 million in March 2020, an increase of 8.6 per cent.

● In the twelve months up to January 2022, excluding COVID-19 vaccination appointments, an estimated 315 million appointments were booked across all general practices in England. This is an increase of three million compared to the twelve months up to January 2020 (312 million appointments).

● Excluding COVID-19 vaccination appointments, an estimated 319.8 million appointments were booked across all general practices in England in the twelve months up to March 2022. Compared to the twelve months up to March 2020 (310.3 million) this is an increase of 3.1 per cent.

● There were 1,462 more full-time equivalent doctors in general practice in March 2022 compared to March 2019. Additionally, there were 13,800 additional staff recruited towards the 26,000 in the same period, covering a range of roles, for example clinical pharmacists.

● There are currently record numbers of staff working in NHS hospital trusts and clinical commissioning groups in the NHS. This includes record numbers of nurses and doctors. Over the past year we have seen almost 4,300 more doctors and over 11,800 more nurses.

● The Government has committed to build 40 new hospitals by 2030, backed by an initial £3.7 billion. Together with eight previously announced schemes, this will mean 48 hospitals delivered by the end of the decade, the biggest hospital building programme in a generation. The first of the 48 hospitals opened for patients last year and a further six are in construction. The new hospitals will transform the way we deliver healthcare infrastructure for the NHS, prioritising sustainability, digital technology and the latest construction methods.