Patients give up trying to see GP

Damning NHS figures find 55% avoid making an appointment over phone delays and how long they have to wait

PATiEnTS have lost confidence in GPs and given up trying to book appointments as they are too hard to get, an nHS survey has revealed.

The damning poll also exposes falling satisfaction, growing difficulty getting through to practices on the phone and longer waits to be seen.

Experts yesterday warned of an ‘alarming collapse’ in standards that poses a threat to health and risks piling more pressure on A&Es.

Fewer than three in four patients (72 per cent) say they have had a good experience with their GP practice this year – down from

83 per cent in 2021.

And 55 per cent of those who needed a consultation said they had avoided making one in the last 12 months – up from 42 per cent. Over one in four (27 per cent) decided not to book an appointment as they found it too difficult – compared with 11 per cent in 2021.

Others were worried about being a burden on the nHS or catching Covid, the survey of 719,000 revealed.

The proportion of patients who said it was easy to get through to their GP practice on the phone has also fallen sharply over the last decade. The GP Patient survey reveals a post code lottery with only one in ten patients at the worst-performing surgeries finding it easy to get through on the phone. At their last appointment, 91 per cent of people said their needs were met, 84 per cent said the healthcare professional was good at treating them with care, and 93 per cent had confidence and trust in them – all down on the previous year.

Beccy Baird, of The King’s Fund, a health think-tank, said: ‘Many of the challenges patients face accessing their GP stem from the chronic staff shortages that have plagued services for years...

‘There has been a failure of successive governments to adequately plan and invest in the future nHS workforce, a failure that has left GPs and patients to pick up the pieces.’

Louise Ansari, national director at Healthwatch England, a patient watchdog, said: ‘we’re particularly worried by the increase in the number of people avoiding GP appointments. This can have a significant impact on people’s long-term health and can lead to increased demand elsewhere in the nHS, such as A&E.’

The survey, conducted between January and March, comes as the number of fully qualified GPs in England is the lowest on record, at 27,627 in May compared with 29,537 in March 2016.

nigel Edwards, chief executive of the nuffield Trust think-tank, said: ‘Today’s GP Patient Survey shows one of the most alarming collapses in nHS performance we have seen since the height of Covid-19, and suggests the crisis we have long feared is arriving... in many ways doctors and their colleagues have done remarkably well to maintain access to care as long as they have.’

An nHS spokesman said it was ‘determined to make it easier to get an appointment’ and had invested ‘record amounts in primary care’.

▪ The number of people in England on nHS waiting lists has hit a record high of 6.6million after growing every month for two years. And a record 5,961 people also waited for more than two months to start treatment following urgent GP referrals for suspected cancer in May.

‘Alarming collapse in performance’