Patients should be finding it easier to get a doctor’s appointment due the extended hours being offered by GPs working in the Isle of Wight Clinical Commissioning Group.
Latest figures from the NHS show that 80% of people registered with a GP can book an appointment on Saturday, Sunday and outside the normal surgery hours on weekdays. In March 2017 no patients has access to all these extended hours.
A further 20% of patients can get to see a doctor on one or more of these extended hours periods.
13 out of 16 offer extended hours
The data was gathered by the NHS from 96% of GP practices in England.
Of the 16 practices that provided data in the area, 13 offer appointments on all extended hours and three do so for one or more of the periods.
The Government says that everyone should have “more convenient access to GP services, including appointments at evening and weekends.”
It has set a target date of 1st October for all patients to have access to extended hours.
BMA: Improve core GP services
Dr Richard Vautrey, BMA GP committee chair, said:
“While schemes like this are rolled out and are successful in providing the services they are commissioned to do, we still believe the money invested in such programmes would be better spent improving core GP services.
“We know that patients are frustrated with being unable to get timely appointments during regular working hours, owing to increased demand and unmanageable GP workloads, and therefore it is these services that should be a priority for proper funding.”
The national picture
There are 7,153 GP practices in England. Currently, just over 6,000 of them offer some access to appointments on Saturdays, Sundays and during extended weekday hours.
The best record is in Herefordshire, and Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire where all patients can make appointments in extended hours seven days a week. The poorest record is in South Sefton on Merseyside, where no patients have access to extended hours every day but 37% do receive some extended hours service.
In most instances, practices get together to form hubs or federations that provide the service, so patients may not see their usual doctor.
The most common days for extended hours to be offered on the Isle of Wight are Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. The least common days are Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Article shared by Data Reporter, Gary Rogers, as part of the OnTheWight’s collaboration with Press Association and Urbs Media
Image: christinawelsh under CC BY 2.0
