The doctor will see you... next month! One in 20 patients now have to wait at ... trends now
One in 20 patients are being forced to wait at least four weeks for a GP appointment, damning figures show.
The number of patients facing lengthy waits of a month or more has rocketed by 38 per cent in the last year – from 12.8 to 17.6million appointments.
In parts of the country such as the Vale of York, four-week waits have rocketed by 80 per cent over the same period, according to analysis of NHS data.
Meanwhile, more than 60million consultations took place after waits of at least a fortnight, an increase of 22 per cent.
Patient groups said the lengthy waits are further evidence of 'GP deserts' and warned the service risks 'going the same way as NHS dentistry'.
The analysis looked at the time between a GP appointment being booked and the date it took place, broken down by local NHS areas across England.
Every single local area in the country saw a rise in four-week GP waits in 2023 compared to the previous year, according to research by the Liberal Democrats.
It means one in twenty (5.1 per cent) of the almost 348 million GP appointments last year involved waits of four weeks or more.
In some areas – including Gloucestershire, Derbyshire and Sheffield, South Yorkshire, almost one in ten consultations were four-week waits.
The Vale of York saw the highest increase in GP waits of 4 weeks or more at 79 per cent, with 103,646 in 2023 compared to 57,779 in 2022.
Similarly, two-week waits jumped from 40 per cent from 263,758 to 369,231 over the same period.
Bury in Greater Manchester saw a 74 per cent increase in four-week waits, East Leicestershire and Rutland saw a 69 per cent jump, and Blackpool, Lancashire, a 68 per cent increase.
In the Prime Minister's own backyard of North Yorkshire, there was a 56 per cent rise in four-week GP waits compared to the previous year.
Dennis Reed,
