Third of patients struggle contacting GP practice
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), more than half (52%) of people who made an appointment in the last month reported that doing so was difficult or very difficult.
A further 22% reported not being able to get a GP appointment at all.
And one-in-five (20%) adults reported managing their condition themselves because of barriers they experienced when making a GP appointment.
What we get are endless, enormous numbers of complaints, which say, “I couldn’t get in touch with my surgery, couldn’t get through on the phone, couldn’t get to speak to anybody, nobody got back to me, I had to keep trying again and again
The ONS asked respondents about their experiences with accessing a GP. Of those who had made an appointment in the past month, around a third (35%) reported it being easy or very easy to make an appointment. Over half (52%) reported it being difficult or very difficult.
The ONS asked adults who needed to make a GP appointment in the past month if they had experienced any barriers. The most common barriers experienced were:
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being offered only a telephone consultation when they wanted a face-to-face appointment (41%)
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waiting too long for a GP appointment (36%)
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difficulty contacting the GP practice (29%)
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not being able to get a GP appointment (22%)
The 2022 GP Patient Survey showed that, between January and April, 15.4% of patients reported not getting an appointment with their GP practice when they last tried to make one, either because they did not take the appointment offered or they were not offered an appointment.
