General practice ‘running hot into winter’

More than 40 million appointments were estimated to have been delivered by general practices and Primary Care Networks in October 2024 and were recorded in GP practice appointment systems. Of these, 1.8 million were for COVID-19 vaccinations.

PCN appointment systems also recorded a further 936,000 appointments, across the 80% of PCNs that have separate appointment systems.

Around 4 in 10 appointments (37.9%) took place on the same day that they were booked, and about 7 out of 10 (69.9%) were carried out face to face.

Of all appointments in October, 40.1% were with a GP, and 23.2% were with general practice nurses.

Responding to the latest GP appointment figures from NHS England Ruth Rankine, primary care director at the NHS Confederation, said: ‘These new figures show the staggering amount of work that GPs and their teams are doing, with a record 38.5 million appointments [excluding those for COVID-19 boosters] in October. This is up significantly on last year and well above pre-pandemic levels.

‘It is clear that general practice is running extremely hot going into winter – just like other parts of the NHS – and is likely to get worse with the expected rise in winter viruses still ahead of us. As recognised in Lord Darzi’s report, primary care is doing more work for a lesser share of the NHS budget. This is simply not sustainable and will make delivering on the government’s commitments of moving from treatment to prevention, and delivering care closer to home, significantly harder to achieve.

‘Primary care is the front door of the NHS, but it is facing increasing demand and costs with fewer providers. The rise in Employer National Insurance Contributions could further exacerbate the problem with providers having to make staff redundant or close their doors permanently if these costs are not reimbursed by the government.’

Reference

Latest GP appointment data; 28 November 2024. https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/appointments-in-general-practice/october-2024