One in 10 patients is waiting at least three weeks to see their GP, figures show

One in 10 patients is waiting at least three weeks to see a GP, according to new figures.

In October, 2.8 million people couldn’t see a doctor until at least 21 days after they had booked an appointment – and of those, 1.4 million waited more than 28 days.

Figures released by NHS Digital also revealed that more than a million people are failing to turn up to their scheduled appointments each month – the equivalent of roughly one in 20.

Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs (RCGP), said it was “frustrating” that patients were having to wait “too long” to secure a GP appointment.

She said: “We want to deliver timely care to patients, in the early stages of illness, to avoid conditions getting worse, when they can be both more distressing for patients, and more costly for the NHS.

“We also want the time to deliver care for patients – for many who are living with multiple, long-term conditions, the standard 10-minute consultation is no longer fit for purpose – but offering longer consultations, means offering fewer, and as this data shows, patients are struggling to get an appointment as it is.”

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Prof Stokes-Lampard also urged people to let their surgery know if they are can’t attend an appointment to avoid wasting resources.

The NHS figures, published for the first time, include data from 90% of GP practices in England.

They estimate that 307 million appointments took place between November 2017 and the end of October, with doctors seeing around a million patients every day and Mondays shown to be the busiest day.

Overall, 10.3% of patients waited more than three weeks for an appointment in October, compared to 9.4% in November 2017.

However, four in 10 patients could book a same-day appointment and more than two-thirds were seen within a week.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokeswoman said: “GPs are working hard to provide high-quality care to their patients, with over a million appointments booked every week day in October and 40% of patients being seen on the same day.

“We are also rolling out extended access hours across the country to ensure that patients can find appointments in the evenings and at weekends, making it easier for people to see a doctor, nurse or other health professional at a time convenient to them.”