Long Waiting Time to Access a GP in The NHS

Public satisfaction with the NHS

Public satisfaction with the NHS has reached an all-time low, with recent surveys indicating that a majority of respondents are dissatisfied. The most common reasons cited for dissatisfaction include long waiting times for appointments, staff shortages, and concerns about government funding.

The 2024 British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey indicates that only 21% of the public are satisfied with the NHS—the lowest level since the survey's inception in 1983. Dissatisfaction has risen to 59%, primarily due to concerns over long waiting times, staff shortages, and perceived underfunding. Specifically, satisfaction with A&E waiting times stands at a mere 12%, and only 23% are satisfied with GP appointment wait times. Furthermore, 72% of respondents believe there are insufficient staff in the NHS.

NHS GP Service Gaps

The 2024 British Social Attitudes survey underscores these concerns. Overall satisfaction with GP services fell to 31%, continuing a multi-year decline and revealing widespread frustration with basic service delivery. A striking 62% of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with the time it takes to get a GP appointment—by far one of the most prominent drivers of overall dissatisfaction across NHS services. The same survey found that only 23% of people were satisfied with GP appointment waiting times, while 72% disagreed with the idea that the NHS currently has enough staff.

Accessing GP services has become increasingly difficult. The Care Quality Commission's (CQC) 2023/24 report noted that 59% of adults who accessed care in the past year had difficulty accessing GP services . Additionally, as of March 2024, 5 million people waited more than two weeks for a GP appointment, with 1.4 million waiting over four weeks.

Recent data from the 2024 GP Patient Survey and the British Social Attitudes (BSA) Survey found that fewer than half of patients (49.7%) found it easy to contact their practice by phone, and just 12.3% said their call was answered immediately. Contact via digital routes was similarly fraught: only 47.9% found it easy to contact their GP using the practice website, and 44.8% said the same about using the NHS App. These statistics indicate that access remains a fundamental pain point in patient experience, particularly when attempts to modernize access routes have not consistently improved usability.

This dissatisfaction is closely linked to structural workforce issues. Between 2016 and 2024, the patient population in England grew by 10%, while the number of fully qualified GPs per 100,000 patients declined by 15%. These figures are indicative of an overstretched system where rising demand has not been matched by growth in practitioner numbers.

The combination of poor accessibility, inadequate continuity, digital exclusion, and staff shortages contributes to a growing reliance on emergency care. New survey data reveals that more than a quarter (27 per cent) of the public have visited A&E recently because the waiting time to access a GP appointment was too long, despite 2024 seeing a record high (370 million) GP appointments delivered. This trend signals not just inefficiency but also danger: pressure is being displaced onto services that are neither designed nor resourced to absorb it.

For end users, these issues translate into missed opportunities for early diagnosis, fragmented patient journeys, and increased dependency on overstretched emergency services. The current GP infrastructure cannot sustain rising demand without substantial digital augmentation. This creates a significant market need for scalable, AI-powered triage and virtual care solutions that reduce load, streamline referrals, and improve continuity.