An elderly patient made an appointment with his cat’s vet after being unable to get a GP appointment.
The unnamed man, who is thought to be in his 70s, asked the veterinarian to look at a worrying rash on his chest after growing increasingly frustrated with the waiting time to see his doctor.
The Brighton-based vet, who choose to remain anonymous, told MailOnline he was unable to treat the pensioner but prescribed flea treatment for his cat in case such insects were causing the man’s rash.
This comes after the GP Patient Survey 2018 released earlier this week found one in four people are forced to wait a week or more to see a family doctor, with such waiting times having doubled over the past six years.
Just one third of people can get an appointment at their local GP surgery on the same day they call-up, the survey found.
Last year, Theresa May ordered GPs to extend their opening hours and offer appointments 8am-to-8pm, seven days a week, in a bid to improve access. Yet, the latest figures suggest securing an appointment is harder than ever.
A patient made an appointment with his cat’s vet after being unable to see his GP (stock)
Asked vet about his rash
The unnamed man visited the vet with his healthy cat, which he immediately put down when he entered the consultation room, saying the feline was fine.
He then proceeded to undo his shirt to show the physician a rash that was causing him concern.
Vets are not permitted to treat humans and risk loosing their license if they prescribe medication.

This comes after a survey released yesterday found one in four people are forced to wait a week or more to see a family doctor, with waiting times doubling over the past six years (stock)
Nearly 30% of people give up on trying to see their GP
The GP Patient Survey 2018, which interviewed 760,000 people, found that the proportion of patients waiting more than a week to see a GP has risen from 12.8 per cent in 2012 to 23.8 per cent this year.
The number of patients finding it ‘not very easy’ or ‘not at all easy’ to get through to their GP surgery by phone has increased from 19 per cent to almost 30 per cent between 2012 and 2018.
Worryingly, the number of patients who have given up altogether and not seen or spoken to anyone after struggling to get an appointment has nearly doubled from 15 to 28 per cent in just a year.
GP leaders estimate that around a million people see a doctor every day; meaning hundreds of thousands of patients are struggling to see a medic when sick.
The findings of the survey will likely fuel concern about GP crisis, with such services being under pressure due to immigration, an ageing population, and a crisis in recruitment and retention.
On the back of the findings, John Kell, head of policy at the Patients Association, said: ‘It can be unbelievably stressful to face a long wait or period of uncertainty even before getting to see a doctor, quite apart from prolonging the length of time someone has to live with the medical issue that is troubling them.
‘Figures of this sort are no longer at all surprising, but they’re not acceptable.
‘These problems are the result of policy decisions that could and should have been made differently.’