GP appointments up by a quarter on pre-pandemic levels

GPs delivered over a quarter more appointments in April than before the pandemic, according to NHS data.

(c) Hush Jade Naidoo Photography/Unsplash

(c) Hush Jade Naidoo Photography/Unsplash

Over 30 million (30.5m) appointments were delivered in April 2024, compared with 24.5m in April 2019.

Dr Amanda Doyle, national director for primary care, NHS England said: ‘Thanks to GPs and their hardworking teams, millions more appointments are being delivered every month compared to before the pandemic with plans in place to improve access even further.'

Over 1.4m GP appointments are being offered every day with the NHS having exceeded ambitions to provide an additional 50m appointments by March 2024.

An extra 62.8m appointments (370.1m in total, excluding Covid vaccinations) were delivered in 2023/24 compared with 2018/19.

Almost all (98%) GP practices in England have upgraded their phone tech to ensure more appointment calls can be taken, with the remaining agreeing dates for upgrades in the next month.

Almost two-thirds of appointments (65.4%) were face-to-face in April.

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