A total of 897,697 appointments occurred at GP practices across our region in that month. Of these, over 100,000 had been booked more than three weeks prior. This amounts to 11.5 per cent of all appointments, an increase from 10.5 per cent in February, 11.1 per cent in January, and 10.8 per cent in December.
This puts Kent and Medway notably above the national average of 9.4 per cent, and almost three times higher than in parts of London. In North Central London, just 3.6 per cent of GP appointments in March took place more than three weeks after being booked, which is the lowest proportion in the country.
At the other end of the scale, in Gloucestershire, more than one out of every six appointments (17.9 per cent) in March took place more than three weeks after being booked. This represents the highest ratio of any Integrated Care Board in England.
New data has revealed exactly how long Kent residents are waiting to see their doctor. In March of this year, one in every nine GP appointments in Kent and Medway took place more than three weeks after booking.
The majority of patients who saw their GP in the NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board area in March did so within a week of making the appointment. Approximately 66.7 per cent of appointments took place within seven days of booking, including 41.0 per cent that occurred on the same day.
Patients at Norheads Lane Surgery in Biggin Hill were the most likely to wait over three weeks in our region. According to the latest NHS data, 37.7 per cent of the 1,147 appointments at the practice in March took place more than three weeks after booking. This was followed by Headcorn Surgery in Headcorn, where 33.4 per cent of appointments in the same month took place after three weeks.
Dr Amanda Doyle, national director for primary care, NHS England, stated: “Thanks to GPs and their hardworking teams, millions more appointments are being delivered every month compared to before the pandemic, with plans in place to improve access even further. Every GP practice is upgrading their telephone systems to make it easier for patients to contact their surgery. Patients can use the NHS app to order repeat prescriptions and view their test results without needing to contact their family doctor. We know there is more to do to make it easier for patients to access GP services. Building on the successes of the primary care access recovery plan, we will continue to modernise general practice, expand pharmacy services, and offer patients more choices in how they access care.”
Dr N Sabharwal, GP Partner for Norheads Lane Surgery, commented: “We regularly review access data and implement changes to respond to this. At any point in time, this may change due to practice, staff, patient, and NHS England factors. We continue to work with our Patient Participation Group and Primary Care Network group of five surgeries to improve access. Enhanced access, out of hours clinics including weekends, additional staff, and an additional GP from Thursday 25th April 2024 are among the measures we have implemented. Additional paramedics, mental health practitioners, clinical pharmacists, and physiotherapists also run specialist clinics to reduce the need for each appointment to be with a GP.”
Headcorn Surgery was approached but declined to comment.
Primary Care Minister Andrea Leadsom said: “These figures clearly demonstrate that more people are getting the care they need, when they need it, thanks to the hard work of our GPs and their teams. GPs and their staff have already delivered on a number of pledges, including exceeding the target of 50 million additional general practice appointments per year, several months ahead of schedule. Through the measures in the Primary Care Recovery Plan, the NHS and primary care staff are freeing up millions of extra appointments per year and making it easier for patients to access the care they need. We remain committed to making our healthcare system faster, simpler, and fairer for all patients so that everyone who needs an appointment is able to get one.”
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.
