More than 60,000 people in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough faced delays of over three weeks to see their GP last month. In April, a total of 559,119 GP appointments were recorded across the NHS in the county, according to recent NHS data.
Almost half of these appointments, 47.9%, occurred on the same day they were booked, while 70.7% were within a week of booking. However, 61,863 appointments saw a wait of over three weeks from booking to the actual appointment date, equating to one in every nine appointments (11.1%) in April. This figure represents an increase from the 9.5% of appointments in both March and February.
Across England, 10.6% of appointments took place more than three weeks after being booked, with 67.3% occurring within a week. Patients in some regions experienced longer waits; for instance, in Gloucestershire, almost a fifth (19.6%) of April appointments took place more than 21 days after booking, the highest percentage in the country. Dorset had a ratio of 17.8%, Norfolk 17.6%, Derby and Derbyshire 16.3%, and Nottingham and Nottinghamshire 16.1%. Conversely, North Central London reported only 4.0% of GP appointments exceeding a 21-day wait. Similar low ratios were found in North East London (4.6%), North West London (5.1%), South East London (6.0%), South West London (6.0%), and Coventry and Warwickshire (6.6%).
In England, the majority of appointments (69.3%) occurred within a week of booking, with over 13.6 million (44.6%) taking place on the same day. Dr Amanda Doyle, national director for primary care at NHS England, noted that GPs and their teams are delivering millions more appointments each month compared to pre-pandemic levels, with ongoing plans to further improve access. She highlighted efforts to upgrade telephone systems in every GP practice to facilitate patient contact, and the NHS app’s functionalities for ordering repeat prescriptions and viewing test results without needing to contact their family doctor.
Dr Doyle acknowledged the need for continued improvements in GP service accessibility, citing the primary care access recovery plan’s successes and the expansion of pharmacy services to offer patients more options in accessing care.
One Health Group PLC (AQSE:OHGR) are a team of Consultant Surgeons and Healthcare managers working with the NHS to provide faster, local and expert care in Orthopaedics, Spinal, General Surgery and Gynaecology.
