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Jeremy Hunt reappointed health secretary

Jeremy Hunt will remain health secretary in the new Conservative Government, the Prime Minister has announced.

Since taking on the role from Andrew Lansley in September 2012, Mr Hunt has notably slashed the QOF by 40%, allowed CCGs to take on general practice commissioning responsibilities and introduced ‘named GPs’ for every patient.

But Mr Hunt, who is the MP for South West Surrey, has also made a number of comments attacked by GPs, including when he blamed the A&E crisis on GPs just six months into the role.

The comment, which he later repeated on numerous occasions, suggested that letting practices relinquish out-of-hours responsibility via the 2004 GP contract had been a ‘diastrous’ decision by the then-Labour Party-led Government.

Meanwhile last year Mr Hunt also attracted a GP backlash when he said that GPs who fail to spot and diagnose cancers should be publicly ‘named and shamed’.

Most recently, Mr Hunt has refused to commit to giving GPs future real-terms pay increases and he has also welcomed his party’s plans for a seven-day NHS, which would see GPs open on Saturdays and Sundays.

Prior to becoming health secretary Mr Hunt was the Coalition Government’s culture secretary, overseeing the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Alistair Burt has been appointed a health minister, but the other health ministers in the department have yet to be announced.