GP appointments go unused at weekend
Doctors call for rethink amid scandal of unused slots despite widespread increase in waiting times
More than one in four GP appointments are unused at weekends, amid a “shocking” failure of policies to improve access to family doctors, an investigation has found. Research from areas offering such access shows that 37 per cent of Sunday appointments are unfilled, along with 24 per cent of Saturday slots. There is also concern that GP practices are failing to tell patients that they could have out-of-hours appointments.
MORE than one in four GP appointments are unused at weekends, amid a “shocking” failure of policies to improve access to family doctors, an investigation has found. Ministers have repeatedly promised to expand opening hours of GP surgeries, so that working people are able to get appointments during evenings and weekends.
But the research from areas offering such access shows 37 per cent of Sunday appointments are unfilled, along with 24 per cent of Saturday slots, and 23 per cent of weekday evenings.
This means around half a million appointment slots have been left empty since April while GP waiting times rise, with a quarter of patients facing a wait of at least a week. Family doctors said the findings showed that the policy, at a time of growing GP shortages, was a “ridiculous luxury” which was making it harder for patients to get an appointment during the week.
In 2014, David Cameron, the then prime minister, said every patient should be able to get a GP appointment in their local area between 8am and 8pm, seven days a week, later making it an manifesto pledge.
But the policy – which is due to be rolled out nationally today – has sparked a backlash from many family doctors, who say it is costing vast sums and leaving them spread too thinly.
There is also concern that GP practices are failing to tell patients that they could have out of hours appointments.
The new investigation by Pulse, comes from Freedom of Information disclosures from 80 of 210 NHS clinical commissioning groups (CCG), which are responsible for GP services.
The lowest take-up was in NHS Thanet CCG, in Kent, with just three per cent of available appointments taken up on Sundays, since April. In Greenwich, south London, less than 20 per cent of slots were taken on Sundays, with 21 per cent taken in Blackpool, 25 per cent in Isle of Wight and 26 per cent in Morecambe Bay.
By 2020-21, more than £500million a year is due to have been spent on schemes to expand access.
Dr Richard Vautrey, BMA GP committee chairman, said: “Because it has become a political must-do, everybody is jumping. Sensible CCGS are under pressure to maintain a service that really isn’t good value for money. That is ridiculous so I think we really do need to see much more common sense and pragmatic flexibility”
Prof Helen Stokes-lampard, chairman of the Royal College of GPS, said: “To find out so many evening and weekend appointments unfilled due to lack of demand is shocking.”
An NHS England spokesman said: “Patients want quicker access outside traditional surgery hours, and are increasingly prepared to vote with their feet to get it.”