New plans for England's NHS aim to offer non-urgent appointments in under two week, end the daily "scramble" for appointments and bring one million volunteers into the health service.
Health Secretary Therese Coffey's “Plan for Patients” pledges to offer "easier access to the NHS and social care this winter and next". It promises to address priorities that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) says are most important to patients, including "ambulances, backlogs, care and doctors and dentists".
Among the measures is a package to improve access to GPs to ensure everybody gets non-urgent appointments within two weeks. NHS figures show that 15% of August 2022 GP appointments occurred more than two weeks after the patient called.
