Rise in number of Notts patients waiting more than two weeks to see GP

Data from the NHS Nottinghamshire clinical commissioning group, which manages and operates GP services in the county, shows about one in six people waited 15 days or more to see a doctor across August.

This amounted to 76,224 out of 454,315 appointments, or 16.77 per cent, with 20,048 patients waiting longer than four weeks to see their GP after calling for an appointment.

When compared with a year earlier, it shows the number of patients waiting 15 days or more increased per proportion of total appointments year-on-year.

In August 2020, 52,736 patients had to wait more than two weeks to see their GP, 13.21 per cent of the 399,056 appointments conducted throughout the month.

It comes as the figures show GP surgeries in the county conducted 55,259 more appointments in August this year compared with a year earlier, with the majority successfully conducted face-to-face.

Surgeries saw 263,103 face-to-face appointments this year, up from 211,162 a year earlier, while the number of telephone appointments remained broadly the same at about 164,000.

The data comes as part of a report from the CCG due before Nottinghamshire Council’s health scrutiny committee on November 24, with August’s figures the most recently-available CCG statistics.

It follows concerns raised by the committee in September regarding patient difficulties in accessing primary care, described as an emerging ‘disastrous situation’.

Satisfaction

However, the report reveals the results of a survey conducted on patients at more than 120 surgeries across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.

About 15,500 responses revealed the CCG is broadly above the national average on issues around patient satisfaction.

When asked how easy it is to get through to your GP practice over the phone, 72 per cent said ‘very easy’ or ‘fairly easy’, above the national average of 68 per cent.

However, 48 out of 122 practices were below the CCG average.

Similarly, when asked how they would describe their experiences of making an appointment, 73 per cent of patients responded with ‘very good’ and ‘fairly good’, above the national average of 70 per cent.

However, 50 of the 121 practices surveyed across the city and county fell below the CCG average on this question.

When asked how they would describe their experience with their GP practice, 84 per cent responded with ‘very good’ and ‘fairly good’, slightly above the national average of 83 per cent.

But when asked how often a patient sees or speaks with their preferred GP, 45 per cent responded with either ‘always or almost ways’, or ‘a lot of the time’.

This is the same as the national average of 45 per cent, with 60 out of 121 practices falling below the average across the CCG.

The CCG said: “The GP Survey questions are good indicators of patient satisfaction, showing the CCG average is higher than the national average.

“However, the CCG has a registered population of circa 1.1 million, but the maximum number of responses was 15,500, 1.4 per cent.”

Lucy Dadge, CCG chief commissioning officer, told councillors in September: “We recognise demands on all our healthcare services now are greater than they ever were.

“They were growing pre-Covid and they’re growing now.”

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