INVESTIGATION: How are North Yorkshire's health services coping this Winter
We've been to one GP surgery facing record demand to find out
As the NHS creeks under huge pressure we're told some patients in North Yorkshire are now waiting almost two months for a routine appointment with their GP.
All this week, we are going behind the scenes of our health care services to find out how they're coping.
Dr Abbie Brooks works for York Priory Medical Group and told us winter pressures, plus delays at hospitals means longer waits for routine appointments : "We used to be about a week, then two weeks and now we are nearer a month for a routine appointment and some practices locally are six to eight weeks." She says she has never seen general practice this busy, but that means she can't spend as much time with each patient as she would like: "You don't feel like you are achieving as much as you would like to do, I would love to give all my patients 15 minuets of my time, and give them a full quality assessments but sometimes if you've got 30 patients in the last hour you are just doing all you can to keep it safe."
"Please be kind to our reception staff"
As demand rises, staff working on reception say it's been really tough to deal with irate patients. Kerry Gilbert is a patient care navigator and is often responsible for trying to book people an appointment. She says attitudes have changed following the pandemic: "Everyone used to say you are angles and you are doing an amazing job, now people are like, when is it going back to normal, why can't I just walk in and see a doctor. We are doing our best and I just wish people would realise that"
Doctors say you can help them by booking an appointment online, or if you have a mild illness going to your pharmacy or checking the NHS website.