Thousands of patients in Cambridgeshire are waiting more than a month for GP appointments, a Newsquest investigation has found.
NHS Digital figures show 26,197 people faced a wait of 28 days or more to see a GP in February alone, while a further 38,722 had to wait more than two weeks.
Dr Julia Patterson, chief executive of Every Doctor, said the figures highlight the “enormous strain” GPs are under to keep up with demand.
She said: “We’ve arrived at a situation now where we’ve had a government for 14 years that has underfunded the NHS and treated staff very badly, so lots of them are leaving which is creating chronic staff shortages.
“Other issues in our society mean we have a very high burden of ill-health now, with lots of people on long-term sick leave from work and lots of people struggling to get timely treatment on all levels.
“This has created a situation where GPs are under enormous strain and the burden of illness that they are responsible for is extremely high.”
It comes as new rules are set to take hold in England that will strip GPs of their power to sign people off work as part of government plans to tackle the UK’s “sick note culture”.
In a speech on April 19, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that shifting responsibility for issuing fit notes away from primary care would “free up valuable time for GPs”.
Last year, it was reported that patient satisfaction of Cambridgeshire GPs fell from 71.6 per cent in 2022, to 68.8 per cent.
At the same time, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Integrated Care Board saw the third highest loss of GP partners across England between March 2019 and March 2022.
Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, chair of the British Medical Association’s GP Committee England said: “The NHS in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough has 15 fewer GP surgeries and 100,000 more patients today compared with ten years ago.
“The government’s recent GP contract has imposed real terms cuts to practice funding, and they refuse to give surgeries access to an existing funding pot to hire more GPs or practice nurses.
“Despite this, in February 2024, GP practice teams across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough delivered an astonishing 562,098 appointments – the equivalent of half the local population – and half of those on the day the patient got in touch.
She added: “This puts the numbers of patients waiting more than 28 days into context - and many of those will be appointments scheduled in advance for the patient’s benefit, for example to provide better continuity of care.
“GP practices in this region and beyond are working at full capacity. Any blame for patients having to wait lies with the government.”
In the year to February, 6,891,254 appointments were offered to patients across Cambridgeshire.
A spokesperson for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Integrated Care Board said: “GP practice teams across our area are working hard to support local people and are offering tens of thousands of additional appointments every month compared to pre-pandemic levels.
“When you contact your GP practice, you will be offered an appointment with the member of the practice team who is best placed to support you – whether this is a GP, a physiotherapist, a social prescriber or one of the other expert members of the team.
“We are grateful for the work our GP practice teams do on a day-to-day basis and are working with practices to further improve local people’s experience of GP practice care.”
The Department for Health and Social Care has been approached for comment.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? Contact: oliver.murphy@newsquest.co.uk.
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