The GP practices where Northamptonshire patients are most likely to wait more than two weeks for an appointment have been revealed in new figures.
The government said that the data published by NHS Digital – which provides detailed information on appointments and waiting times for individual GP practices in England – will help patients “make a more informed decision about the practice they choose to visit”. But the move has not been welcomed by all, with the Royal College of GPs (RCGP) criticizing the lack of context around how different practices operate.
A total of 431,851 appointments were made at GP offices in the former CCG area of NHS Northamptonshire in October. At least 83,398, 19 percent, of these had taken place more than a fortnight after being booked, while 27,049, or six percent of the total, saw patients wait more than 28 days. The Nothamptonshre practices with the highest proportion of appointments after a fortnight were:
■ Wootton Medical Center: 43.5% of 4,116 appointments were made more than two weeks after being booked in October
■ Brackley Medical Center: 37.8 percent of 9,598 appointments
■ Denton Village Surgery: 37.6% of 5,389 appointments
■ Weavers Medical: 37.5 percent of 11,211 appointments
■ Summerlee Medical Center: 37.2 percent of 678 appointments
■ Harborough Field Surgery: 35.2 percent of 7,421 citations
■ Spinney Brook Medical Center: 33.3 percent of 5,504 appointments
■ Parklands Medical Center: 32.9 percent of 6,910 appointments
■ Greens Norton & Weedon Medical Practice: 32.8 percent of 9,745 appointments
■ Byfield Medical Center: 31.8 percent of 5,282 appointments
At the other end of the scale:
■ Higham Ferrers Surgery: Only 1.4% of 1,918 appointments caused patients to wait more than a fortnight in October
■ Danes Camp Medical Center: 3.6 percent of 4,253 appointments
■ Marshalls Road Surgery: 3.6 per cent of 1,044 appointments
■ Rillwood Medical Center: 4.1 percent of 1,512 appointments
■ Dr. Abbas: 6.2% of 4,538 citations
■ Maple Access Partnership: 7.7 percent of 8,472 citations
■ Nene Valley Surgery: 8 percent of 3,730 appointments
■ Lakeside Healthcare: 8.3 percent of 23,813 appointments
■ Brook Medical Center: 8.6 percent of 1,812 appointments
■ County surgery: 9.2 percent of 2,192 appointments
This newspaper offered Wootton Medical Center an opportunity to comment on the data but received no response. NHS Digital warned that GP workloads can be affected by a number of factors, including the demographics of patients registered with the practice, how private the area is and the number of care homes served by the practice. practice.
The new practice level figures come as part of the government’s “plan for patients”, which includes a new ambition for every patient to get an appointment at their GP practice within two weeks. However, the RCGP said the government should address the root cause of pressures from GPs, including the recruitment and retention of doctors rather than “burdening a struggling service with new expectations”.
Chair Professor Kamila Hawthorne said: “A record 36.1 million inquiries were delivered in October, almost 40% of them on the day they were booked and over 71% delivered in person, the highest proportion since before the pandemic.
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Professor Hawthorne said GP workloads have increased, while the number of fully qualified full-time equivalent GPs has fallen by 719 across England since 2019. She added: “Teams of GPs from Bedside are just as frustrated as patients when they don’t have the resources and time to deliver the high level of patient care they want, and in some areas where the pressures are even greater, this is happening more.”
The government has laid out plans to review NHS pension rules in a bid to retain more senior doctors and to remove barriers to retired doctors returning to work, including new “flexibilities” to increase working hours without affecting pension payments.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay said the changes would “open up additional appointments so patients can see their GP and consultants more quickly.”
