How good is YOUR GP practice? As five per cent of Britons are forced to wait ... trends now
Calling your GP practice and getting an appointment on the same day might seem like the bare minimum requirement for a functioning health service.
But waiting a month or more to see a doctor is increasingly common, new analysis shows. One in 20 is forced to wait at least four weeks to see their GP in England. The rate stands closer to one in 10 in the worst-affected parts of the country, which include Gloucestershire and Derbyshire. Some areas, such as the Vale of York, have seen an 80 per cent increase in four-week-long waiting times in just a year.
Here, Mail+ has compiled a host of NHS data to reveal how your GP is performing in the nationwide battle to see a doctor.
The guide will show you how your GP practice ranks in a swathe of appointment access data, including which practices are best for same-day appointments and how many other patients you're competing with to beat the queues. All data is correct as of November.
To create this comparison, we analysed the numbers of full-time-equivalent (FTE) GPs at the 6,000-plus practices in England and compared it to the number of registered patients.
Comparing the number of FTE GPs provides a more accurate account of the situation at your practice given how many doctors now work part-time.
Health chiefs say a GP to patient ratio above 1,800 could be unsafe as family doctors risk rushing through appointments or becoming exhausted due to their patient case load.
This, in turn, can increase their risk of missing early signs of serious illness among their patients, with potentially devastating consequences.
Our analysis of GP data found more than half (52 per cent) of practices were above the 1,800 patient-to-doctor threshold.
NHS data shows access to same-day appointments varies hugely across the country.
For example, Chartwell Green Surgery in Southampton was the worst offender, with its 3.8 FTE GPs recorded as being unable to provide same-day appointments in November.
Medicus Select Care in Enfield, north London, also struggled, with only 2.9 per cent of its appointments held on the same day in November last year.
Patients struggling to get appointments with a GP will be well-versed in speaking to practice receptionists in a bid to book a slot.
Our GP audit found family doctors were outnumbered by admin staff such as receptionists at a rate of 20-to-one at some practices.
Medicus Select Care in London offers the fewest same day appointment in England
The practices in England offering the most same day appointments
Matrix Medical Practice in Chatham, Kent, had almost 24 FTE admin staff on its books compared to its single FTE GP.
High rates were also seen at JS Medical Practice in north-central London (14 admin staff for every FTE GP) and East Lynne Medical Centre in Clacton-on-Sea in Essex (12.8 admin staff for every FTE GP).
Only 452 GP practices in England (7 per cent of the total) had a
