Waiting times in GP surgeries and hospitals have been a big focus for a while now, but how bad are they in reality, and does it depend on the particular treatment required? To find out, Click Pharmacy conducted a new piece of research in which they compiled data from official statistical sources in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland.
The research found that, on average between January 2020-2023, 51% of patients were able to see a doctor on the same day as phoning to make an appointment, whilst 32% had a wait time of between 1-7 days. Of these appointments, 66% were face-to-face with a GP.
In 2022 specifically, 48% attended appointments on the same day as calling, with 31% taking place within the span of a week. The research found that, luckily, just 13% of appointments took place within 8-14 days, with 7% of patients having to wait over 2 weeks for an appointment.
Interestingly, the data revealed that 2020 had actually performed better in terms of waiting times, despite additional pressures on healthcare providers as a result of the pandemic. In 2020, an average of 55% of doctor’s appointments were for the same day, with just 11% requiring an 8-14 day waiting time.
Sadly, wait times were not limited to just GP appointments. Click Pharmacy found that there were some large discrepancies between the waiting times for different medical procedures/hospital departments.
The 5 departments with the highest wait times were:
Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) – 34-week average national waiting time
Trauma and Orthopaedics – 21-week average national waiting time
Oral Surgery – 20-week average national waiting time
Urology – 19-week average national waiting time
General Surgery – 19-week average national waiting time
Meanwhile, some departments saw relatively low waiting times in comparison.
The departments with the lowest national waiting times were:
Paediatrics – 9-week average national waiting time
Chemical Pathology – 9-week average national waiting time
Cardiothoracic Surgery – 10-week average national waiting time
Cardiology – 11-week average national waiting time
Regionally, data from December 2022 highlighted that certain regions had far lengthier wait times for hospital appointments than others, with the North West coming out relatively well, having seen some of the lowest wait times in the country across Lancashire, South Cumbria, and Manchester (5-week waiting time).
In contrast, Cambridgeshire in the East of England had the longest waiting times nationally, with patients having to wait upwards of 32 weeks for an appointment. Other high waiting times were found in Derbyshire (26 weeks) and Birmingham (24 weeks) – both in the Midlands – alongside Liverpool (22 weeks) and Swansea (22 weeks).
Speaking on the survey, Jana Abelovska, Superintendent Pharmacist at Click Pharmacy said:
“Our research into healthcare waiting times has sadly revealed the true extent of pressures mounting against care providers across the UK. Whilst we, of course, expected to find waiting times as they are no secret by any means, it was surprising to see just how many serious hospital departments, such as cardiology, were seeing backlogs of over 2 months before appointments were able to be obtained.
“Overall, it was concerning to see that many departments are on downward trends, meaning these wait times are likely to increase in the near future, with potentially devastating outcomes for patient health.”
