34 million requests for GP appointments estimated to fail

Back in February we reported how several different publications, including a press release from the Royal College of GPs, wrongly stated that 34 million people failed to get GP appointments last year.

The 34 million figure - which is based on findings from the GP patient survey - is an estimate of the number of times people failed to get an appointment the last time they tried to do so. It doesn't necessarily say that all those people didn't get an appointment at all.

Today, we were pleased to see an improvement in the reporting. The Times stated today that "more than 34 million requests for GP consultations will fail to be met this year". If this year does follow the recent trends, this could even understate the figure, given people would only report the most recent occasion they tried.

That said, it remains an uncertain estimate because the total number of GP appointments across England isn't exactly known. Instead, it's based on projections using past years' data.