City one of the hardest places to see your GP

Bath is one of the hardest places in the country to get a doctor’s appointment, new research has shown.

Across the UK, the average waiting time for a chance to see your GP is one week - but in Bath, people usually wait for 10 days.

Those are the lucky ones, as other patients reported waiting over a month to get an appointment.

Boyes Turner medical negligence experts found that 23 per cent of Bath folk had to ring up several times before getting a slot.

This was often because there were no appointments available or they could not get through to a receptionist.

The firm analysed NHS digital data and discovered that, on average, it took people nearly three days to get booked in.

They then usually had a week-long wait for their appointment.

Almost one fifth of patients were seen on the same day, but 14 per cent waited more than a month in total for their slot.

Another 16 per cent said they were still waiting to be able to book in with their GP.

Across the UK, on average, people said they had to wait at least a week to get an appointment with their doctor.

But one in 10 patients waited more than two weeks to get one.

For coronavirus-related illnesses, people waited 16 days on average from first making contact to having their appointment.

Alarmingly, those who said their need was “very urgent” waited a week on average, while those who said their need was “quite urgent” waited just five and a half days.

Nearly 70 per cent of people in the study felt that waiting times for appointments were up to twice as long as before the pandemic. And, since Covid began, four per cent of patients have had to wait more than a month to see a doctor.

The study said patients had turned to “other means” to see a medical professional or even tried to deal with their ailments themselves. In Bath, a quarter of people had called 111, 17 per cent had self-medicated and another quarter had gone to a pharmacy. Nationally, one in 20 had resorted to attending A&E because they were unable to get a GP appointment, while over a quarter searched for an answer to their issue online.

Another 10 per cent plumped for alternative therapies instead. Richard Money-kyrle, at Boyes Turner, said: “The impact of the pandemic on health services has been allencompassing. The NHS has been responding to unimaginable pressure since the initial coronavirus outbreak, and our research indicates that the impact on patients is continuing, especially when it comes to securing a speedy appointment with a medical professional.

“It’s concerning that so many patients are resorting to self-diagnosis, visiting A&E and even alternative therapies simply because they can’t discuss their ailments with a trained medical professional in a suitable time frame.

“We would urge the public to persevere with booking an appointment with their GP when needed and to seek advice from 111 or pharmacists if more urgent.”

Further information about the findings can be found on the Boyes Turner blog.