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 for patients to see their GP in the Blackpool NHS Clinical Commissioning Group has been for non-emergency appointments (a) between June and September 2018, (b) between October and December 2018, (c) in January 2019 and (d) in February 2019.

A table showing the time between booking an appointment with a general practice and having the appointment (in days) for Blackpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) for June – September 2018 (inclusive), October – December 2018 (inclusive) and January 2018 only is attached. There are seasonal variations in the general practitioner (GP) appointment data therefore a 12-month average (February 2018-January 2019) is also presented. NHS Digital’s ‘Appointments in General Practice’ data is published monthly with a two-month time lag. Data covering February 2019 will be published on the NHS Digital website on 4 April 2019 and will include a regional breakdown by sub-region, sustainability and transformation partnership and CCG.

It is not possible to differentiate the time between booking an appointment and having the appointment by healthcare professional, therefore the data includes appointments with GPs and other practice staff. The appointments data does not differentiate between emergency and routine appointments in general practice and the ‘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.