Patients are facing a “postcode lottery” for GP appointments with one in 10 people waiting more than a month to be seen in some areas, new research shows.
The number of month-long waits hit a record high last year and in almost 95 per cent of areas there was an increase in people waiting 28 days or more.
The figures, compiled by the House of Commons Library, demonstrate the uphill battle facing Labour as it ramps up recruitment of family doctors in a bid to cut waiting times and ease pressure on the NHS.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced on Tuesday that an extra 1,503 GPs have been recruited since October, with the health secretary prioritising services closer to patients’ homes.
But the number of general practitioners per patient has fallen drastically in the past decade, leaving the system under significant strain.
Below, The Independent has mapped the regions where most patients are facing waits of a month or more for appointments:
The House of Commons Library research showed that 100 out of 106 sub-Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) saw the number of 28-day or longer waits for GP appointments jump in 2024 compared with a year earlier.
The starkest rise was in Sunderland, where there was a 51 per cent increase in month-long waits, followed by North East Lincolnshire with a 46 per cent jump and North Cumbria which saw a 38 per cent spike.
The research, commissioned by the Liberal Democrats, found Kent and Medway was the area with the most month-long waits in the country, with 781,000, rising by more than a fifth from 2023’s level.
Derby and Derbyshire had the second highest number of month-long waits, with 722,000, up 14 per cent from a year earlier.
Meanwhile, more than one in 10 patients was forced to wait more than a month to see a GP in areas including Gloucestershire, Chorley and South Ribble, Derby and Derbyshire and Dorset last year.
Regionally, the south west had the highest portion of patients waiting 28 days or more for an appointment, with 7.7 per cent. Second worst was the north east and Yorkshire, followed by the east of England and the south east.
The Liberal Democrats said the figures revealed a “reveal a stark postcode lottery that is leaving people in vast swathes of the country without the care they deserve”. They called for patients to have a legal right to see their GP within seven days or 24 hours if in urgent need. The data measures the time between booking an appointment and it taking place. It includes instances where the patient requested a particular date.
The party said this could be done by recruiting 8,000 additional GPs.
The party’s health and social care spokesman Helen Morgan said: “Many already in pain are being forced into anxiety-inducing waits that only add to their suffering and leave them at risk of not getting the treatment they need in time.”
Ms Morgan attacked the Conservatives over “broken promises” on the health service, accusing the Tories of “running our local health services into the ground”.
But she said: “It is now the Labour government not showing nearly enough ambition to break this cycle of misery.
“If we are going to give communities the local health care that they need, we have to go further and faster.
“That means giving patients a legal right to see their GP within a week by ensuring there are 8,000 more GPs. Only then will we be able to rebuild our NHS and get patients the care they deserve.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “This data does not show waiting times for GP appointments – it shows the length of time between appointments being booked and taking place.
“This government inherited GP services buckling after years of neglect but we have already taken urgent action to to fix the front door of the NHS.
“By cutting red tape and boosting funding, we have already put an extra 1,503 GPs into general practice to deliver more appointments. The extra investment and reforms we have made will allow patients to book appointments more easily, help bring back the family doctor and end the 8am scramble.”
