Scrap Sunday GP appointments, review advises

Additional hours in general practice should be provided on weekdays and Saturday mornings and be used for urgent problems rather than for bookable appointments, a review carried out for NHS England has concluded.

The independent analysis of the first wave of pilot sites offering extended services has shown that patients had little desire to see their GP on a Sunday and that few took up appointments on Saturday afternoons.1

The BMA said that the findings raised “serious concerns” about the government’s approach to seven day services for general practice, which has resulted in “precious NHS resources being wasted on keeping near empty practices open and staffed.”

The government announced the £50m (€70m; $75m) Challenge Fund, now called the Prime Minister’s GP Access Fund, in October 2013 to introduce seven day access to routine GP services in England by 2020.2

The …