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Over five million people are unable to book GP appointments outside of working hours

Ten per cent of registered patients live in areas where there is no access to GPs in evenings and at weekends

Over five million people in England are unable to book GP appointments outside of working hours.

Ten per cent of registered patients live in areas where there is no access to GPs in evenings and at weekends, the BBC reported.

In contrast, 40 per cent of patients have access to “full provision” as defined by the NHS as “seven-day 8am to 8pm” availability, the BBC revealed.

Breaking promises?

NHS England said it was still on track to provide access to extended care for all patients by 1 October, but Labour has accused the Government of breaking promises.

Over half of the population only have “partial provision”, which is when a GP can only offer the minimum of ninety minutes of pre-bookable appointments once a week.

Former Prime Minister David Cameron assured everyone in England would have access to GP services seven days a week by 2020 at the Conservative party conference in 2014.

The plans have since been accelerated, and from October it will be mandatory for all Clinical Commissioning Groups to begin the process for extended practices at their services.

Is it the right time?

The latest surveys filled out by GPs shows widespread regional variation. In Sefton, Merseyside, two thirds of patients had no access to GPs outside of working hours, the highest percentage in England.

Whereas Herefordshire and Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire are one of the few places where every patient had access to full provision.

Doctors’ groups have challenged the Government’s insistence on introducing extended access as currently there is a critical shortage of GPs.

In a recent British Medical Association’s paper, GP committee chair Dr Richard Vautrey said the Government should address “increased demand and unmanageable GP workloads”.

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