Over 1 million people were unable to contact their GP in the past month
1.1 million people who attempted to contact their GP in the past month could not get through, accounting for one in 20 of all people who tried, research by the Liberal Democrats has revealed.
Analysis of the latest ONS survey on health care by the Liberal Democrats found that in just one month, 4.8 million people who tried to reach their GP could not make contact on the same day. This accounts for close to a quarter (23%) of all people who tried.
Of these, 2.2 million patients had to wait several days to make contact, while over 1.1 million were completely unable to access their NHS GP in the month.
More than 2 million people said that they found it difficult to contact their GP in the past month, equating to 10.8% of all people who tried. The percentage of people who said they had a difficult experience rose when looking at those who tried making contact by telephone to 13.3%, or 1.2 million people.
Even when people successfully secured an appointment less than half received a face to face appointment and over 100,000 patients were told to manage their issue themselves.
The Liberal Democrats said that the figures illustrated the extent of the crisis in our NHS and called on the government to take urgent action to ensure patients can see their GP. The party has pledged to give people a legal right to see their GP within a week, or 24 hours if in urgent need.
This would be achieved by recruiting over 8,000 additional GPs. To ensure patients are not left unable to reach their GP, the Liberal Democrats would also introduce a 24/7 booking system, allowing people to book GP appointments at any time.
Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Hospitals and Primary Care, Jess Brown-Fuller MP said:
The crisis in NHS primary care cannot be allowed to continue. Millions of people are being forced to wait in pain for weeks just to get a GP appointment.
The government must act urgently to ensure patients can see their GP when they need to. The mistakes of the previous Conservative government, which ran our health service into the ground, must not be repeated.
The lack of GP appointments is leading to unnecessary hospital admissions, putting more strain on A&E and costing the NHS even more money.
Patients have been suffering through a health service crisis for far too long. That is why the Liberal Democrats would boost GP numbers to give all patients the legal right to see their GP within a week or 24-hours if in urgent need.
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One Comment
The crisis is probably even worse than that: This research looks only at people who tried and failed to contact their GP, but I wonder how many people don’t even try because they know it’ll be pointless. I myself have simply not bothered on a number of occasions with minor issues that I’d like to have a GP look at but where it’s not worth a 3 week wait.
However, I’m sceptical of some of our proposed solutions. Recruit 8000 GPs? Yes, great in principle as a long term aim, but as a solution to the immediate crisis… Are there really 8000 unemployed doctors in the UK just sitting waiting to work as GPs but who for some reason the NHS hasn’t yet got round to employing? I rather doubt it. And a legal right to see a GP is just additional legal bureaucracy, and is pointless because if we don’t have enough GPs it’ll be impossible for the NHS to obey such a law anyway. I wish we could start thinking through realistic solutions instead of descending into this kind of populism.
On the other hand a 24/7 booking system, if online, if designed well, does sound sensible. The NHS does seem badly behind the times when it comes to online services.