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More than one in four weekend GP appointments left unused, investigation finds
More than one in four GP appointments are left 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 being left unfilled, along with 24 per cent of Saturday slots, and 23 per cent of those on weekday evenings.
This means around half a million appointment slots have been left empty since April.
Meanwhile, waiting times to see a GP are rising, with one in four patients now 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, then Prime Minister David Cameron said every patient should be be able to get an 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 appointments at evenings and weekends.
The new investigation by Pulse, comes from Freedom of Information disclosures from 80 of 210 NHS clinical commissioning groups, 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 £500m 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. We understand there is huge pressure from the centre on CCGs to demonstrate they are providing a full seven-day service.
“Sensible CCGs that want to use their resources in a better way 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… if we had the luxury of resource and workforce then we could look at extending the service but until then we’ve got to focus on what is most important.”
Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said the findings were of great concern.
“GPs want to give patients access to services they need but this will differ depending on local demographics. At a time when general practice is struggling for resources and patients are waiting longer for routine appointments, to find out so many evening and weekend appointments have been unfilled due to lack of demand is shocking.”
The latest GP survey shows almost one in four patients wait at least a week for an appointment, almost twice as many as when similar questions were posed six years ago.
And 29.7 per cent of those who had attempted to make appointments had struggled to get through on the phones - a rise from 18.6 per cent in 2012.
Thanet CCG, which had 26 per cent take up of Saturday slots, along with 3 per cent take up on Sundays said it nonetheless planned to increase the number of weekend appointments on offer.
A spokesman said: “We are working with our team to ensure there is a publicity campaign across East Kent prior to the national 1 October go-live date. Our expectation is that uptake will improve once awareness increases and will build with time.”
He said the plans would mean around 200 extra appointments would be made available at evenings and weekends.
“We have no reason to believe we’ll have an issue filling
the available slots,” he said.
An NHS England spokesman said: “Even though six out of 10 CCGs didn’t respond to this small survey, the more representative results of the annual GP survey and the patient response to new digital-first GP providers is clear: patients want quicker access to a trusted GP both during the working week and outside traditional surgery hours, and are increasingly prepared to vote with their feet to get it.”