Some waiting more than a month to see their GP

AN NHS “postcode lottery” means that people in some areas of the North East are not getting a doctor's appointment until more than a month after booking one.

- SAM VOLPE

NHS figures for March show that in North Tyneside 9% of appointments took place more than 28 days after booking, while in Northumberland it was 8%. However, health bosses cautioned that this data includes cases where someone has booked a review with a nurse substantially in advance, or appointments with school nurses, for example.

As such, bosses at the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board - which commissions health services across the area - said that when accounting for appointments with a GP alone, 97% in both Northumberland and North Tyneside took place within 28 days of booking.

The data as a whole shows that across the ICB’s geography, 6% of appointments took place after a wait of more than 28 days. A total of 1.7m appointments took place in March, and 41% of those took place on the same day. The figures show that, year-on-year, the number of appointments available has increased, too.

Around the country, the data shows that more than 1.5 million appointments at practices across England in March took place more than four weeks after being booked. That works out as 5% of appointments, or one in every 20.