Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time is for a GP appointment in (a) Yorkshire and (b) England in the most recent period for which figures are available.
NHS Digital started publishing monthly data on appointments in general practice in December 2018. Data is currently available between November 2017 and January 2019. A table showing the time between booking an appointment with a general practice and having the appointment (in days) for England and NHS North (Yorkshire and Humber) is attached. There are seasonal variations in the general practitioner appointment data therefore the most recent month for which data is available (January 2019) is presented as well as a 12-month average. NHS Digital’s data on ‘time from booking to appointment’ does not take into consideration that many patients will be appropriately booking ahead as part of the continuity of care they receive for long-term conditions.