THE GP practices in Warrington where patients are most likely to wait longer than two weeks for an appointment have been revealed in new figures.

The new data published by NHS Digital gives detailed information on appointments and waiting times for individual GP practices across England.

In releasing the figures, the Government said they will help patients to make a more informed choice about the practice they choose to visit’.

A total of 112,337 appointments took place at GP practices in the former NHS Warrington CCG area in October.

At least 21,224 (19 per cent) of these had taken place more than a fortnight after being booked, and of those, 8,721 (eight per cent) saw patients wait longer than 28 days.

In Warrington, the practices with the highest proportion of appointments occurring after a fortnight were:

  • Chapelford Primary Care Centre – 39.6 per cent of 2,304 appointments took place more than two weeks after they had been booked in October
  • Westbrook Medical Centre – 33.8 per cent of 4,320 appointments
  • Culcheth Medical Centre – 29.9 per cent of 5,266 appointments
  • Springfields Medical Centre – 29.2 per cent of 4,245 appointments
  • The Lakeside Surgery – 28.6 per cent of 4,757 appointments

At the other end of the scale:

  • Cockhedge Medical Centre – just three per cent of 989 appointments saw patients wait longer than a fortnight in October
  • Stretton Medical Centre – 7.6 per cent of 3,479 appointments
  • Holes Lane Medical Centre – 9.9 per cent of 4,798 appointments
  • Causeway Medical Centre – 9.9 per cent of 3,992 appointments
  • Dallam Lane Medical Centre – 10 per cent of 1,861 appointments

NHS Digital cautioned that GP workloads can be affected by several factors such as the demographic of patients registered at the practice, how deprived the area is and the number of care homes the practice offers services to.

The new practice-level figures come as part of the Government's ‘plan for patients’, which includes a new ambition for every patient to get an appointment at their GP practice within two weeks.

However, the Royal College of GPs said the Government should address the root cause of GP pressures – including recruitment and retention of doctors – ‘instead of lumbering a struggling service with new expectations’.

Chair Professor Kamila Hawthorne said: “A record 36.1million consultations were delivered in October, almost 40 per cent of these on the day they were booked, and more than 71 per cent delivered in-person – the highest proportion since before the pandemic.”

Prof Hawthorne also said that GP workloads have escalated, while the number of fully qualified full-time equivalent GPs has fallen by 719 across England since 2019.

“GP teams are just as frustrated as patients when they do not have the resources and time to deliver the high standard of care to patients they want to, and in some areas where the pressures are even greater, this is happening more,” she added.

Meanwhile, Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patients Association, said primary care should engage with patients and find out their priorities, such as whether face-to-face appointments are priority for them, to help the NHS improve triage and resource prioritisation.