Research commissioned by The Times newspaper has revealed that one in four UK adults are unable to book a GP appointment when they need one.
The data also shows that one in ten patients who turn up at A&E will spend more than twelve hours in the queue.
According to The Times:
The Office for National Statistics surveyed nearly 5,000 UK adults in the four weeks to December 18 about how easy they found it to see a doctor. Half said getting a GP appointment was “difficult or very difficult”, while four in ten said they were offered only a telephone consultation when they wanted to see a doctor face to face.
Some 23 per cent said they were unable to get a GP appointment the last time they tried, a percentage point higher than the previous month, and 37 per cent said they had to wait too long.
Nearly one in three reported difficulties contacting the practice, with patients often stuck in long queues on jammed telephone lines.
The report exposes the scale of the crisis in GP access amid a drop in the number of full-time doctors and rising demand from an ageing population.
The survey also revealed that 21 per cent of adults were stuck on NHS waiting lists for tests, treatments or routine operations, with 72 per cent reporting it had a negative impact on their life as many suffered in pain.
Of those on the waiting list, 19 per cent reported that they had been waiting for a year or longer, and 28 per cent said they were waiting for more than one condition. People in deprived areas, or with a disability, were the worst affected.
Rishi Sunak has made bringing down NHS waiting lists of 7.19 million patients one of his five priorities.
GPs in England carried out 26.8 million appointments in December, 68 per cent of which were face to face.
Before the pandemic 80 per cent of appointments were face to face, but most surgeries have shifted to a hybrid system. There are about 4,500 fewer full-time GPs in England than there were a decade ago.
NHS data shows there were 26,706 permanent qualified GPs working in England last month, down from 27,064 in December 2021.
Only 23 per cent of qualified permanent GPs worked at least 37.5 hours a week last month while 69 per cent worked between 15 and 37.5 hours.
The Royal College of GPs said: “It’s as frustrating for GPs as our patients when they are unable to access our care and services. It is a result of years of underfunding in general practice and poor workforce planning.”
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of patients are spending more than a day in crowded emergency rooms.
In November more than 150,000 people waited over 12 hours in A&E from the time they arrived.
This is four times higher than the official monthly figure for 12-hour waits, which counts only the time waited after doctors decide a patient needs admission and does not include those who only receive treatment in A&E itself.
