Millions of UK patients are forced to wait more than THREE WEEKS to see their GP, official figures show after Boris Johnson pledged to cut delay
- Boris Johnson promised to stop lengthy waiting times to see a family doctor
- In Tory manifesto the PM also promised to recruit, train and retain 50,000 nurses
- The latest figures show 11.3 million patients have waited more than three weeks
Millions of patients are having to wait more than three weeks to see a GP, figures have revealed.
Boris Johnson promised to stop such lengthy waiting times to see a family doctor in his first speech as Prime Minister in July.
He said: ‘My job is to make sure you don’t have to wait three weeks to see your GP.’
In the Tory manifesto, the PM also said he would recruit, train and retain 50,000 nurses and pledges 50 million more appointments in GP surgeries.
In the four months for which figures are available since Mr Johnson made his announcement, 11.3 million patients have waited longer than three weeks, as reported by The Sunday Times.
Boris Johnson promised to stop such lengthy waiting times to see a family doctor in his first speech as Prime Minister in July (pictured)
And of that number 5.6 million patients waited more than a month to see their family doctor.
Lucy Watson, of the Patients Association, said: ‘It can be unbelievably stressful to face a long wait before getting to see a GP, apart from prolonging the length of time someone has to live with the issue that is troubling them.’
The number of GPs working full-time had fallen sharply from 34.3 per cent in 2015 – the year data was first collected – to 30.7 per cent last year.
The General Medical Council found 36 per cent of family doctors reduced their in-practice time since the start of 2019.
The latest available figures show that 11.3 million patients have waited longer than three weeks
One in ten blamed stress, while others said they were not given enough time with patients to deliver proper care or feared burning out.
The report, which surveyed 3,800 doctors, found that a fifth are considering quitting medicine entirely within the next year.
It also found more than two thirds of them work beyond their contracted hours every day.
Some 92 per cent of them felt unable to provide patients with a sufficient level of care several times over the past year. More than a quarter felt this way every day.