Rise in GP appointments but frustration remains over access
Patients say they're still struggling to get through to their surgery
Last updated 27th Jun 2023
A report revealed that the number of GP appointments has increased between January and March this year compared to last year.
The increase in appointments exceeded 277,761 attended in practices across the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board area.
During the Health and adult social care select committee celebrated on Wednesday (June 27), a report on the primary care access service was presented to the committee.
According to NHS Digital, a total of 2,787,105 GP appointments have been attended between January 2023 and March.
The paper indicates that 125,001 were not attended while 1,319,767 were given.
An increase of 64.5 per cent in face-to-face appointments was registered compared to 1,460,537 appointments received in the same period last year.
The report said, ‘While the data provides an overview in terms of what is being offered, it does not necessarily show the accurate picture of demand or provide a narrative as to a practice’s circumstances.
‘The data may show some inaccuracies with how practices record interactions with patients.’
For Sara Tiller, Hampshire place director for the ICB, this appointment increase is ‘good news’.
However, Cllr Marge Harvey, who represents the Catherington division, indicates her residents’ difficulties when booking an appointment through the telephone service.
Cllr Harvey said, ‘All they residents want is to be able to book an appointment; they don’t want anything else other than that.’
For its part, the ICB director responded, ‘Despite numbers going up, there is still a lot of frustration about access and the complications with accessing GP. There is work ongoing to improve telephony,’
Last Autumn, new arrangements came into place across the area for additional primary care capacity outside the core hours of General Medical Services (GMS) contracts, 8am to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays.
These are available from 6.30pm to 8pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 5pm on Saturdays.
These changes were designed to improve access, promote patient choice and support primary care resilience.