Three-week wait to see your doctor

GP surgeries buckling under the weight of soaring demand.

Patients are waiting more than three weeks for doctors’ appointments as a result of the GP crisis engulfing the NHS.

A Sunday Post probe has revealed unacceptably long delays in getting appointments as cash-strapped surgeries face soaring demand. A huge spike in Britain’s elderly population many with chronic health conditions such as diabetes or asthma means many family doctors are struggling to cope.

Our probe has found patients in some surgeries are waiting up to 22 days for a routine appointment. Critics have accused the Government of failing to do enough to alleviate the problem.

Dr Miles Mack, of The Royal College of General Practitioners, said: “Some speak of general practice on the brink of a crisis. It is clear that the crisis is here and it is now.”

We contacted 100 surgeries across the north of England and Scotland asking for the earliest non-emergency appointment with a GP. Of the practices we called, fewer than one in six were able to offer one within 48 hours.

More than a third had no availability within a week and four said it would be three weeks or more before we could see someone.

Three practices, one in Cleator Moor, Cumbria, another in Inverness, and a third in Tranent, East Lothian, said the earliest routine appointment available was 22 days away.

Three years ago this newspaper carried out a similar survey. At that time the average wait at the GP surgeries we targeted was 5.14 days. Now it’s longer than a week at 7.32 days.

Our findings echo those of a survey of patients published earlier this month.

A poll of more than 900,000 people suggested patients failed to book an appointment nearly 34 million times last year because they couldn’t get through on the telephone.

It’s feared the delays in getting appointments may be putting the health of elderly and infirm patients at risk. Ill people are showing up at hospitals more frequently as they have been unable to see their family GP piling further pressure on beleaguered A&E departments.

Experts are warning the problem is only going to get worse if the current trend of falling GP recruitment continues.

The RCGP says an extra 8,000 new GPs will be needed in England alone by 2020 to cope with the rising number of patients.

The RCGP said an extra 915 GPs will be needed in Scotland by and 8,000 in England by 2020 to cope with the rising number of patients.

Dr Mack added: “Since the last Sunday Post research in 2012 there has thankfully been much more recognition of the difficulties general practice is suffering. But, unfortunately, there has been very little in the way of positive policy change from Government.

“We increasingly hear of ever growing numbers of patients having to wait unacceptable periods before being able to see their GP. That is frankly improper.”

Our probe looked at surgeries from Dingwall to Dumfries in Scotland and Berwick-upon-Tweed to Blackpool south of the border. Three practices, one in Tranent, East Lothian, another in Inverness, and a third in Cleator Moor, Cumbria, said the earliest routine appointment available was 22 days away.

The British Medical Association said they were unsurprised by our findings and said the problem was driven by a shortage of GPs.

Dr Alan McDevitt, chairman of the BMA’s Scottish GP Committee, said: “These findings support what the BMA has been saying for some time about the shortage of GPs across the country.

“Our own national survey of GPs found that doctors were concerned that the pressures of their workload were affecting the quality of care for their patients.”

Scottish Government figures from 2013/14 claim that over 92% of surgeries hit the 48-hour target. But their own stats also found in some towns like Greenock in Inverclyde the figure goes as low as just 12%.

There are currently around 1,000 surgeries across the country.

The SNP’s Health Secretary Shona Robison said: “Under this Government, spending on GP services has increased by £69.7m, or 10%, and the number of GPs has increased by 6.9% to almost 5,000 the highest ever on record.

“There are now more GPs per head of population in Scotland than England but we are determined to do even more to improve access for patients.”

Although health is devolved to the Scottish Parliament, the NHS has become a hotly debated issue during the election campaign.

David Cameron has vowed that patients in England will have access to GP surgeries between 8am and 8pm seven days a week by 2020 if the Conservatives are re-elected in May. Labour has said it will guarantee GP appointments within 48 hours if it is voted in next month.

But doctors’ leaders believe both pledges could prove unrealistic. SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, meanwhile, has vowed her MPs will vote on England-only issues including the NHS during the next parliamentary term.

She said: “The NHS is so vitally precious to us all and we rely on it to be there for us when we need it. In government, the SNP has shown wholehearted commitment to protecting and improving Scotland’s NHS, and we have made clear that we are prepared to support a bill at Westminster to restore the National Health Service in England. We can end the Tory agenda of cuts, privatisation and patient charging.”

Case study

Nowhere is the GP appointments crisis more acute than in Bannockburn, Stirlingshire. Its health centre, which has 9,500 patients, is so overburdened it’s been taken over by the local health board. Usually six months notice is required for GPs, who are independent contractors, to terminate their medical practice contract.

However the health board waived the notice period “in the interests of local patients and practice staff”. This followed the retirement of two doctors.

Some patients have claimed it’s a “nightmare” getting an appointment.

Mum-of-two Patricia Bags said: “You can’t walk in and make an appointment. They say to phone at half-eight every morning but you can’t get through and are put in a queue. It’s a joke. You’re on the phone every day trying to get an appointment.

“I’ve waited three weeks to see a GP. Someone is going to end up dead because of it.”

The situation isn’t much better in Grangemouth, where the Kersiebank Medical Practice has 10,000 patients but just two GPs. Five have quit since January. This has left a backlog with patients being forced to queue outside the surgery at 8am for an appointment.