Hundreds of thousands of sick patients were unable to reach their GP last month, shocking figures show
More than a million sick patients – accounting for one in twenty who tried – were unable to contact their GP in the past month, research shows.
Startling figures have exposed the difficulty of being seen by a doctor, with millions of people ‘forced to wait in pain’ for an appointment.
Analysis of the latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that in just one month, 4.8 million people trying to reach their GP were unable to get in touch on the same day.
Of these, 2.2 million patients had to wait several days before being contacted, while more than 1.1 million patients had no access to their NHS GP at all that month.
Even when people were able to successfully make an appointment, fewer than half received a face-to-face visit, while more than 100,000 patients were told to solve their problem themselves, the data showed.
The Liberal Democrats, who carried out the analysis, said the figures illustrate the scale of the crisis in our NHS and called on the Government to take urgent action to ensure patients can see their GP.
One in twenty people who tried to reach their GP last month were unable to do so, new figures show (file image)
Even when people were able to successfully make an appointment, less than half received an in-person visit, while more than 100,000 patients were told to solve their problem themselves (file image)
Jess Brown-Fuller, their spokeswoman for Hospitals and Primary Care, said: ‘The crisis in NHS primary care cannot continue. Millions of people are forced to wait in pain for weeks for an appointment with the doctor.
‘The government must take urgent action to ensure patients can see their GP when they need to.
‘The lack of GP appointments is leading to unnecessary hospital admissions, increasing pressure on emergency departments and costing the NHS even more money.
“Patients have been suffering from a health care crisis for far too long.”
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: ‘GP services are collapsing after years of neglect, but through our Plan for Change we will restore the front door of the NHS and shift the focus of healthcare from the hospital to the community.
‘We are hiring 1,000 more GPs and have proposed the biggest boost to GP funding in years – an extra £889 million – and bringing back the GP so patients most in need can see the same doctor at every appointment. ‘