Seven in 10 people want to be able to see a GP urgently within 24 hours, research by the NHS’s patient watchdog has found.
Almost three-quarters (71%) of voters in England support automatic access to a family doctor within one day of requesting an appointment for a health problem they consider cannot wait.
Healthwatch England urged ministers and NHS employers to respond to intense frustration about the long delays many people face waiting to see a GP, by enshrining in the NHS constitution what would be patients’ first ever guarantee of care by general practice within a set timeframe.
Currently the main rights that the constitution confers on patients involve hospital care. They include the right to have an operation within 18 weeks of referral, to have cancer diagnosed inside 28 days, and to be dealt with by an A&E unit within four hours. However, the unrelenting pressures on hospitals and chronic understaffing means those goals are often not fulfilled.
Ministers last month unveiled plans to update the constitution and give patients new rights.
Louise Ansari, Healthwatch England’s chief executive, said that while many people did see a GP promptly, access to family doctors was the single biggest bugbear for patients. Delays left some so frustrated they gave up trying to get a consultation, fell more ill and ended up in A&E. “We too often hear about long waits in phone queues to book appointments and struggles navigating online GP access tools,” she said.
She added: “It’s not surprising that people want to see timely GP access as a new right in the NHS constitution. As well as better access generally the constitution should reflect the widespread desire among patients to be able to get an urgent appointment with their family doctor within 24 hours.”
The polling agency Savanta asked 1,812 adults in England on Healthwatch’s behalf what new rights to NHS care they would most like. In response 71% said they wanted to be able to secure an urgent GP appointment within 24 hours.
However, GP leaders dismissed the idea as unworkable. Shortages of family doctors, surgery closures and unrelenting demand, meant GPs did not have enough time to offer an urgent appointment to everyone who wanted one, they said.
“The reality is that we don’t have enough GPs to guarantee care to all patients within 24 hours of booking,” said Prof Kamila Hawthorne, chair of the Royal College of GPs. “Demand for our services would simply outstrip capacity. Introducing mandates for practices to ensure that all appointments are delivered within a set timeframe would simply pile on pressure to an already struggling service.”
Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer, chair of the British Medical Association’s GPs committee, said GPs would like to offer the 24-hour access patients wanted. But she said: “The sad truth is we have lost over 1,000 practices in the past decade, with almost 2,000 fewer full-time equivalent GPs than 2015.”
The right to an urgent GP appointment is a policy of the Liberal Democrats.
Ansari wants the NHS constitution to be renamed the “patient promise” and the health service to initiate a “national conversation” about what access it could be expected to deliver.
“Ahead of the review of the NHS constitution we ask the government to ensure one of the NHS pledges covers the maximum waiting times to be seen at GP surgeries,” she said. “This would help restore public satisfaction with the NHS, which has fallen sharply in recent years, especially as a result of frustration at delays in access to care.”
The survey also found that 68% of adults wanted to choose whether a GP appointment was in person, on the phone or on screen. It found 58% wanted the NHS to provide a single point of contact about their care and 56% wanted to receive regular updates while waiting for care.
The Department of Health and Social Care did not comment directly on the findings. But a spokesperson said: “Practices are required to let patients know how their request will be managed on the day they contact the practice, and patients should not be asked to call back at a later time.
“If an appointment is necessary it should be offered within two weeks, and NHS guidance is clear that practices should take patients’ preferences on the mode of appointment into account.”
• This article was amended on 17 May 2024. The polling agency which carried out the research was Savanta, not Survation as an earlier version said.
