More than 13,000 patients were left waiting more than 28 days for an appointment at GPs in south east London during March 2023, new figures show.

Data released on April 27, 2023 by the UK government showed that a total of 13,935 people waited more than 28 days for an appointment at practices across south east London in March.

This equates to 1.8 per cent of total patients - which is lower than the national average of 3.8 per cent left waiting more than 28 days.

43.9 per cent of patients in south east London received a same-day appointment which is very close to the national average.

Several factors drive the time from a booking to an appointment, including appointment availability at the practice, patient availability, the urgency of the appointment and GP advice.

Here are the top five practices with the most patients waiting longer than 28 days for an appointment in south east London.

BEXLEY MEDICAL GROUP - 698

DYSART SURGERY - 505

BELLEGROVE SURGERY - 460

GROVE MEDICAL CENTRE - 401

ELTHAM MEDICAL PRACTICE – 343

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31.6 million appointments were estimated to have happened in March 2023 across the whole of England and 90.7 per cent of all appointments were attended.

On March 13, a 72-hour walkout saw operations and appointments cancelled for thousands of patients as doctors joined picket lines outside their hospitals in a dispute with the Government over pay.

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Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs, said in response to a discussion to a King’s Fund event in central London: “GPs and our teams are working tirelessly to deliver safe, timely and appropriate care, and to give patients the choice of appointment they want.

“Around 85 per cent of appointments in general practice are already happening within two weeks of being booked, and almost half are delivered on the day they are booked – and those taking longer than two weeks after booking may be routine or regular appointments for which the timing is therefore appropriate.”

She said GPs “share our patients’ frustration when they struggle to access our care, however, this is not down to GPs and their hard-working teams, but due to decades of under-funding and poor resource planning”.

She added: “We are delivering more appointments overall compared to before the pandemic, but with 852 fewer full-time fully qualified GPs compared to 2019.

“It is not too late to turn this dire situation around to revitalise general practice as a clinician’s career of choice, and restore continuity of care for patients.

“The forthcoming primary care recovery plan and long-awaited NHS workforce plan will be key opportunities to do this.”