Intended for healthcare professionals

News

Many patients in England are waiting more than two weeks to see a GP, figures show

BMJ 2018; 363 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k5221 (Published 07 December 2018) Cite this as: BMJ 2018;363:k5221
  1. Jacqui Wise
  1. London

A fifth of patients waited more than two weeks for a general practice appointment in October, show new figures from NHS Digital.1 General practices in England had 27 million appointments in October, with almost five million of them taking place between 15 and 28 days from the booking date.

The figures show that 40.2% of appointments took place on the same day they were booked. A further 6.6% of patients were seen within one day and 20% between two and seven days after booking.

It is the first time that the NHS in England has collected and issued figures in this way and comes after a request from …

View Full Text

Log in

Log in through your institution

Subscribe

* For online subscription