GPs in Trafford: the 10 GP surgeries with longest waits to see a doctor after booking an appointment

Patients at some Trafford GP surgeries are far more likely than others to face long waits between booking an appointment and actually getting to see a doctor, figures show.

Data from NHS Digital has shown how many patients had to wait more than four weeks for an appointment at their local practice in October, revealing the strain many surgeries are under. ManchesterWorld has rounded up the 10 GP practices in Trafford with the highest percentage of appointments involving waits of more than 28 days, with the rate at one surgery being more than one in five appointments, or 20%. Practices which had fewer than 100 appointments in October have been omitted.

Across England, nearly half of appointments in October (49%) took place on the day they were booked, analysis of the data found.

However, 640,000 appointments - 3% of the total - took place more than 28 days later. This didn’t include appointments which are usually booked in advance, such as medication reviews. And in some surgeries, the proportion of patients waiting more than four weeks was far higher.

There are several factors that influence the length of time a patient has to wait for an appointment, including availability at the practice, patient availability and the urgency of the issue.

The British Medical Association, the trade union for doctors, said the monthly figures were the “highest level of GP appointments on record”. And the Royal College of GPs said the figures showed “how hard GPs and their teams are working to deliver increasingly complex care to a growing number of patients, against a backdrop of severe workforce shortages.”

Here are the 10 surgeries with the highest percentage of patients waiting 28 days from contacting their surgery; figures are taken from NHS Digital in October.