FIVE MILLION patients are being denied a GP appointment every month, analysis reveals 

Five million people a month are unable to book a GP appointment when they want one with the number doubling in a year, a damning study suggests.

Millions more are left waiting over a month to be seen, potentially forcing them to overcrowded A&Es or leaving them at risk of serious diseases being diagnosed too late.

The situation has got drastically worse, with the number unable to see a GP rocketing from 2.7million in October 2021 to 5.2million this October, according to analysis of NHS figures by the Labour Party.

The most common reasons patients were unable to secure a GP appointment were because practices were not allowing them to book too far in advance or there were no appointments available when they wanted them.

Ministers have now ordered the NHS to publish league tables showing the number of appointments and long waits at individual surgeries in a bid to improve performance and eradicate variations in standards.

Separate figures from the NHS reveal that there are 4,600 fewer GPs today than in 2013.

Last year, then-Health Secretary Sajid Javid admitted the Government is set to miss its commitment to recruit 6,000 more GPs.

NHS Digital data for England in October shows more patients were seen face-to-face since Covid first hit the UK (71.3 per cent). Officials have told doctors to see more patients in-person over concerns about missed diagnoses

The graph the GP services in England that provided the fewest in-person appointments in October (red), the fewest consultations with GPs (purple) and the fewest same-day appointments (green). The NHS noted that its data is experimental — so may be of poor quality and subject to change. And some GP services have a digital first approach 

However, NHS Digital data also reveals that just 44 per cent appointments in October were with a GP — the lowest proportion since the pandemic began. The majority of appointments were with other practice staff, such as a nurse, health visitor or physiotherapist

Wes Streeting MP, Labour’s health spokesman, said: ‘Patients are finding it impossible to get a GP appointment when they need one.

‘I’m really worried that among those millions of patients unable to get an appointment, there could be serious conditions going undiagnosed until it’s too late.’

Around one in seven patients (15.4 per cent) did not get a consultation the last time they tried to book one, according to the 2022 GP Patient Survey.

Some 10.3 per cent of these were helped by their practice in another way, leaving 13.8 per cent without the care they needed and at risk of serious diseases being diagnosed too late.

There were almost 32 million appointments in October. If these accounted for 86.2 per cent of the demand it suggests 5.2 million wanted consultations that they were unable to book.

The 2021 GP Patient Survey found one in ten (10.3 per cent) were unable to book an appointment when they wanted one with 15.9 per cent helped in another way and 8.7 per cent left unaided.

There were 30 million appointments in October 2021, suggesting 2.7 million were unable to book – half the number for the same month this year.

A further 2 million people were made to wait more than a month to see their doctor this October, the most since records began in 2017, while 4.3 million had to wait more than two weeks.

A father was last month turned away from every GP practice in his town, Didcot in Oxfordshire, as he tried to get an appointment for his 2-year old with an ear infection.

They had recently moved to the town and were not registered anywhere.

Another woman in Liverpool passed away five weeks after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Her diagnosis was delayed because she could not get an appointment with her GP for weeks.

Commenting on the analysis, Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: ‘GPs and their teams are working flat out to deliver the care and services our patients need.

‘GPs want our patients to receive timely and appropriate care, and we share their frustrations when this isn’t happening.

‘But difficulties accessing our services isn’t the fault of GP teams, it’s a consequence of an under-resourced, underfunded, and understaffed service working under unsustainable pressures.

‘While GP workload has increased by 18 per cent since 2019, numbers of fully qualified, full-time equivalent GPs has fallen by 719.’