More than one million people couldn't contact their GP in the past month, figures show

It comes after the government has pledged an extra £889 million for reforming GP services. Credit: PA

More than one million people who tried to contact their GP in the past month could not get through, with almost a quarter unable to make contact on the same day, data has shown.

According to analysis of Office for National Statistics figures by the Liberal Democrats, 4.8 million people who tried to reach their GP across one month could not make contact on the day they tried to.

Some 2.2 million of these patients then managed to then get in touch with their GP after several days - while a further 1.1 million were not able to contact their GP at all.

Less than half of those who secured a GP appointment managed to see a doctor face-to-face.

Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Hospitals and Primary Care, Jess Brown-Fuller MP said: “The crisis in NHS primary care cannot be allowed to continue.

"Millions of people are being forced to wait in pain for weeks just to get a GP appointment.

“The government must act urgently to ensure patients can see their GP when they need to. The mistakes of the previous Conservative government, which ran our health service into the ground, must not be repeated."

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It comes after the government has pledged an extra £889 million for GPs in the new year as part of reforms aiming to slash red tape and bring back family doctors.

The proposals would see GP surgeries incentivised to ensure patients see the same doctor at every appointment.

A Department of Health spokesperson said: “GP services are buckling after years of neglect but through our Plan for Change we will fix the NHS’s front door and shift the focus of healthcare from hospital to community.

“We are hiring an extra 1,000 GPs, and have proposed the biggest boost to GP funding in years – an extra £889 million – and bringing back the family doctor so patients most in need see the same doctor at every appointment.”

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