People across the city are "devastated" about how long they are given at a GP appointment as it is found around a quarter in Merseyside last no longer than five minutes.
NHS Digital published data showing across Merseyside 24.1% of 394,677 appointments attended in the four months to March this year lasted five minutes or less. With a backlog looming since the pandemic people told the ECHO they are starting to feel brushed off as GP struggle to meet the demand of the public.
Patricia Fogul, 62, Litherland said: "I am just devastated over it. If I get unwell I have to compete at nine in the morning trying to get through on the phone to get an appointment. Even when I am there it only lasts seconds and I am sent away with pills."
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For some people not being able to get easy access to the GP can have an impact on their mental well-being.
Kate Barker, 36, Norris Green said: "I just feel brushed off. I know something is wrong with me and I just need someone to help me when I feel poorly and not 100%. I also leave and think oh I forgot to mention that or this and then I always think I need to rebook again."
While GPs have struggled for a while many remember a day when there wasn't so much pressure.
Tom Keane, 79 said: "It wasn't always like this. I used to be on a first-name basis with my doc. He knew everything about me and even looked after my kids."
Craig from the L8 area said: "I don't really go to the doctors but my mum tells me she is just fed up with it all. She has a lot of health problems."
Overall, GP practices recorded 29.6 million appointments in March 2022 alone, which was 4.2 million more than the previous month and 5.5 million above February 2020 – the last full month before the Covid-19 pandemic. On top of that, they also delivered more than 415,000 Covid vaccinations during the month.
An analysis of separate NHS workforce figures by the British Medical Association shows that the NHS has lost nearly 1,600 fully qualified, full-time equivalent GPs since 2015.
In April this year, Professor Martin Marshall, chair of the Royal College of GPs (RCGP), said GPs and their teams were working exceptionally hard and trying their best in the face of intense workload and workforce pressures. He added: “Increasingly, patients are living with complex physical and mental health needs, which is reflected in today’s figures that show almost 40% of patients being seen for longer than 10 minutes in general practice – and more than half if you exclude those with an unknown length.
"Patients with complex health problems need to have more time with their doctor, so we can ensure they are receiving the care they need, which is why the College has called for 15-minute GP appointments as standard.
“This is not to say every patient will need this time as some simple conditions can be dealt with in less, particularly if it is not the GP they are seeing – for example, a simple blood test might only take a few minutes of a practice nurse’s time.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We are working with the NHS to improve access to GPs, tackle the Covid backlog, and grow the general practice workforce to ensure everyone receives the care they need.
"There were over 1,600 more doctors working in general practice in December 2021 compared to 2019, a record-breaking number started training as GPs last year, and we’ve invested £1.5 billion until 2025 to create an extra 50 million appointments per year.
“We also made £520 million available to improve access and expand general practice capacity during the pandemic.”
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