Government ministers have rejected proposals aimed at improving continuity of care for patients with GPs, it has been announced.

The proposals came from the House of Commons health committee and its chair, Steve Brine, described the rejection as “disappointing”. MPs had proposed that the Department of Health develop a national measure for continuity of care – and encourage practices to return to “personal lists”, which means that patients are assigned to specific GPs. The proposals were part of a series of recommendations from the MPs to tackle the crisis in general practice.

In its response, the Government said it accepted or partially accepted other recommendations, largely based on initiatives already under way, such as expanding trainee numbers. This included proposals for “more equitable” distribution of GP trainees across the country, promising to adjust the weighted capitation system currently used to determine trainee places.

The Government also said it accepted a proposal for a national training scheme for practice receptionists – although it added: “It is the responsibility of practices themselves to ensure that their receptionists are adequately trained”. It pointed to a new National Care Navigation Training, aimed at training up to 6,500 staff.

Mr Brine said: “We welcome the Government’s very positive response to many of our recommendations on general practice. It should help relieve the burden on GPs and improve access for patients. A number of issues that our inquiry examined have been addressed by the Government in its plan to recover access to primary care. What’s disappointing is that Ministers have rejected a series of measures intended to restore the doctor-patient relationship to the heart of general practice. The inquiry heard strong evidence to support continuity of care and we hoped to see NHS England championing the personal-list model as one way to help achieve that.”