The recent Darzi report into the NHS flagged the relatively small number of GPs in the UK (Picture: Getty Images)
People seeking an appointment with their GP have had to wait for a month or longer more than 10 million times so far this year, according to new figures.
The statistics suggest that 2024 is on course to be a record-breaking year for long waits to see the local family doctor in England.
In Gloucestershire, the worst-performing part of the country by that metric, 10.1% of appointments involved waits of four weeks or more.
Last week’s scathing report on the state of the NHS by Lord Darzi revealed there are almost 16% fewer fully qualified GPs in the UK than other high income countries relative to population.
The Liberal Democrats, which produced the statistics on long waits, have called for the NHS to be given top priority status in the Labour government’s first Budget at the end of next month.
Party leader Sir Ed Davey said: ‘Fixing the GP crisis is critical to saving our NHS. If people can get seen quicker, fewer will end up in hospital in the first place.
‘That’s better for them, better for the NHS and better for taxpayers.’
He said Brits should get the right to see their GP within seven days, or 24 hours if their issue is particularly urgent.
The Darzi report was particularly critical of reforms brought in by former health secretary Andrew Lansley in 2012 – reforms that came into effect while the Lib Dems were part of the coalition government with the Conservatives.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has said the NHS is in need of dramatic reform (Picture: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)
They were described as a ‘calamity without international precedent’ and ‘disastrous’ by the peer, in his rapid review of the health service.
Lib Dem deputy leader and health spokesperson Daisy Cooper told reporters on Sunday that she thought the Lansley reforms had been a ‘mistake’.
She said: ‘At the time, the Lib Dems were fighting tooth and nail within the coalition and during that coalition period to protect the day-to-day spending of health and education on a real-terms basis.’
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: ‘The NHS is broken. These findings show how much general practice has been neglected.
‘This government will fix this by shifting the focus of healthcare out of the hospital and into the community.
They said the government has committed to hiring an extra 1,000 GPs into the NHS by the end of this year, and has provided an extra £311 million towards GP contract funding over the coming year.
Sir Ed Davey on stage at the Lib Dem conference in Brighton (Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire)
Health and social care policy has been at the centre of many speeches and events at the annual Liberal Democrat conference, which is currently taking place in Brighton.
It’s the first gathering of Lib Dem politicians, staff and activists since the party achieved its best ever General Election result in July, going from 15 MPs before the vote to 72 afterwards.
Cooper and Davey are due to deliver speeches on Monday and Tuesday respectively, with the NHS expected to feature heavily in both.
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