Written questions by Adam.

What steps his Department is taking to increase the number of GPs in Leicester.

We are working to increase the general practice (GP) workforce across England, including in Leicester. This includes measures to boost recruitment, address the reasons why doctors leave the profession, and encourage them to return to practice.NHS England has allocated £1.9 million of emergency short-term funding this year for the recruitment of newly qualified GPs in Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland. The Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board (LLR ICB) has communicated the available funding for additional resource to each Primary Care Network, with guidance on how it can be most effectively used across the ICB area.In order to offer wider opportunities beyond the standard recruitment platforms, the LLR ICB is also enabling its GPs to widen their candidate search by utilising the LLR Local Medical Committee’s recruitment channel. The ICB continues to work closely with NHS England Workforce Training and Education to ensure they maximise the number of GP trainees that they take in LLR, which also helps with longer term recruitment and retention.

What steps he is taking to (a) help prevent burnout and (b) increase the capacity of postgraduate GP trainers.

We hugely value the critical role that general practitioners (GPs) play, and we are determined to address the issues they face. We recognise that burnout among postgraduate GP trainers is a risk that needs to be tackled, as highlighted in the General Medical Council’s National Trainer Survey. We will continue to work with the National Health Service and profession to understand how we can help GPs and improve their working environment.The Government is committed to reducing bureaucracy and paperwork for GPs, an intention we stated at the Royal College of General Practitioners Annual Conference earlier this month. This will be an important step in reducing burnout risk, which is often reported to be due to workload challenges.NHS England is working to expand GP trainer numbers in addition to the number of trainees, and has made changes to the delivery of GP specialty training to better support trainees and to support trainers and educators, such as piloting blended learning and standardising entry and approval requirements.