Third of GP surgeries were too busy to make appointments for patients last year

A THIRD of GP surgeries were too busy to make appointments for patients last year.

A poll by doctors’ magazine Pulse found 30 per cent turned patients away at least once between June 2022 and June 2023.

And some faced abuse from patients after refusing to see them.

NHS data shows 47 per cent of patients rated it “not easy” to get through to their practice on the phone in 2022, up from 32 per cent in 2021.

One anonymous Wiltshire GP in the poll said her practice is currently “incredibly busy – almost as busy as winter”.

She added: “We generally can only offer routine appointments in two weeks’ time.”

Professor Kamila Hawthorne, of the Royal College of GPs, said: “This survey makes for sad but unsurprising reading.

“GPs want to do the best we can for all patients and will only cancel routine appointments as a last resort, but the truth is that we cannot work any harder.

“We are delivering more appointments compared to before the pandemic, yet we have nearly 970 fewer full-time GPs.

“There is not the supply to meet the demand.”

Medics blame the falling GP numbers on tough working conditions.