Record 20.5 million month-long waits for a GP appointment last year - up 60% in seven years

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• There were a record 20.5 million waits of 28 days or longer for a GP appointment last year - up a staggering 60% on 2018’s figure of 12.9 million
• There was also a staggering rise in the number of appointments that saw waits of two weeks or longer - reaching 67.1 million last year, a fifth (18.3%) of all appointments
• The Liberal Democrats said the figures were “devastating” and called the government's failure to include a legal right for patients to see their GP within a week in the 2025 NHS England mandate an acceptance of “managed decline”

There were a record 20.5 million month-long waits for a GP appointment last year, new research by the Liberal Democrats reveal.

The figures revealed a shocking rise in these long waits, with the numbers in 2018, when this data set was first published, sitting at just 12.9 million. It means that in just seven years there has been a near 60% increase in these month long waits. 

It is also a significant rise on last year's number of 17.6 million 28-day or longer waits, a 16.3% jump.

The research showed a similar story for waits of two weeks or longer. Last year there were 67.1 million two-week or longer waits, accounting for a fifth (18.3%) of all appointments and a 10.2% rise on 2023’s figure of 60.9 million. Since 2018, there has been a 43.3% rise in two-week waits from 46.8 million to 67.1 million.

Previous analysis by the Institute for Public Policy Research has found that one in eight of those who could not get a GP appointment went to A&E instead. This places more pressure on emergency care, which has seen record long 12-hour A&E waits. Analysis of long A&E waits has suggested that they could have been responsible for 50,000 deaths last year.

The Liberal Democrats have called the figures “devastating” for patients and said that the government’s lack of ambition in not putting forward a legal right for patients to see a GP within seven days showed they had accepted a “managed decline” of the NHS.

Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson, Helen Morgan MP said:

“These sky-rocketing GP waits lay bare the grim reality millions are suffering through on a daily basis. Communities have seen their local health services abandoned with many stuck in limbo, unable to get an appointment when they need one.

“The previous Conservative government's unforgivable neglect brought us to this point but the Labour government’s lack of ambition in rebuilding our health service has been shocking. 

“In their latest mandate to the NHS they refused to back Liberal Democrat calls to give patients a legal right to see their GP in a week. Instead, Ministers opted to embrace a managed decline of the health service and it is patients who will bear the brunt of these failings.

“If the government continues down this path it will only cause more anxieties for families right across the country who have already spent too long suffering with a health service on its knees.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

The research by the Liberal Democrats can be found here. The data measures the time between when the appointment was booked and when it took place.

Reporting on the research by the IPPR can be found here.

Analysis of deaths in A&E due to long delays can be found here.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey's comments on the figures can be found here.