One in four GP patients have given up trying to make an appointment because it is ‘too difficult’
ONE in four GP patients have given up trying to make an appointment because it is “too difficult”.
The figure revealed in a damning NHS poll is double that of last year.
Patients are unhappier than ever with GP practices. Just 56.2 per cent said they had a good experience when trying to get seen, a drop from 70.6 per cent in 2021.
And 28.1 per cent were unhappy with their appointment options, a figure that rose from 18.3 per cent last year.
Nigel Edwards, head of the Nuffield Trust health think- tank, said: “It suggests the crisis we have long feared is arriving.”
Family doctors have warned they do not have enough staff to keep up with demand.
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Many patients are coming with serious conditions that did not get seen to during Covid.
Beccy Baird, from the King’s Fund think-tank, said: “For many of us, general practice is the front door to the NHS.
“These results show that patients are finding that door increasingly hard to push open.”
Dr Farah Jameel, top GP at the British Medical Association, said: “We also feel dissatisfied after years of under-investment, ever-increasing workload and a government who has not been listening to us.”
An NHS spokesperson said it had invested record amounts “including offering a new telephone service which increases the number of phone lines practices have for patients”.