The GP Patient Survey 2016, published on 07 January 2016, shows a significant and steadily growing trend in unhappiness with GP surgery opening hours between Jan - Sept 2012 (when the data on these questions was first collected) and Jan – Sept 2015 (the latest wave of the survey):

- The proportion of people saying their GP surgery is not open at a convenient time has grown steadily from 15.96 per cent in 2012 to 18.74 per cent for the same period in 2015. That is equivalent to an increase from 8.5m to 10.2m patients.

- The proportion of people saying they are dissatisfied with their surgery opening hours has grown steadily from 7.30 per cent in 2011 to 9.89 per cent for the same period in 2015. That is equivalent to an increase from 3.9m to 5.4m patients.

 - The GP-Patient survey has a sample size of 900,000, making trends of this magnitude highly significant. ONS population estimates have been used to calculate the increase in the number of people who say their surgery opening times are not convenient.

Heidi Alexander MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Health, said:

“Two elections ago, David Cameron promised to open GP surgeries seven days a week. But these figures show that in the last three years millions more patients have become unhappy with the opening hours of their local practice.

“Under the Tories patients are finding it harder to access the NHS five-days a week, let alone seven. Labour has said all along that you cannot deliver a seven-day health service without the extra resources and staff the NHS needs.

“Extra funding announced by the Government in November has already unravelled, with the majority of the money going towards fixing hospital deficits and paying for extra pension costs.

“Rather than repeating empty promises, patients need the Government to start taking action to improve GP access.”

Ends

Editors notes

The previous Labour government improved access to GPs

- When Labour introduced its GP extended opening hours scheme in April 2008 just 12 per cent of GP practices were open in the evenings and weekends.[1]

- By July 2009 over three quarters of GP surgeries – some 6,384 surgeries in total – were offering evening and weekend appointments, delivering over four million additional appointments a year.[2]

But despite the success of Labour’s scheme, David Cameron cut it after the 2010 election

- On entering government, David Cameron cut the funding available to GP practices for the scheme from £3.01 per registered patient to £1.90.[3]

- He relaxed the GP contract, meaning that practices only had to open for an extra 30 minutes and appointments could be offered by any healthcare professional, instead of only by a GP.[4] 

- He removed the financial incentives for GPs to improve access to appointments in the Quality and Outcomes Framework (which awards GP surgeries points for patient care, which are linked to financial payments, including how patients view their experience, according to the GP-Patient Survey.)

And satisfaction with opening hours is now getting worse despite David Cameron promising to guarantee patients access to GP appointments 7 days a week.

- In their 2010 manifesto, the Conservatives promised to ensure patients can access their GP seven days a week

“We will commission a 24/7 urgent care service in every area of England, including GP out of hours services, and ensure that every patient can access a GP in their area between 8am and 8pm, seven days a week.”

Conservative Party Manifesto, 2010, page 47

- They repeated this promise at the 2015 election, with the first line of the manifesto saying:

“We will…provide 7-day a week access to your GP.”

Conservative Party Manifesto 2015, page 3

[1]http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130107105354/http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Statistics/Performancedataandstatistics/PrimaryCare/DH_089459

[2]http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130107105354/http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Statistics/Performancedataandstatistics/PrimaryCare/DH_089459

[3] http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/www.dh.gov.uk/en/Healthcare/Primarycare/PMC/AccessResponse/DH_120575

[4] http://www.hsj.co.uk/primary-care/exclusive-poor-patients-face-shorter-gp-opening-hours/5043677.article#.UoYJOElFBdg