North Tyneside patients quoted in national report on GP appointments

Known as “the 8am scramble”, the desperate and often futile early morning dash to secure a GP appointment over the phone in recent years has become one of the biggest problems in accessing healthcare.

Now North Tyneside patients have contributed to a new national report by Healthwatch England on this ever topical issue which examines the choices patients want when they book GP appointments and whether they are being offered them.

Called The ‘Choice Gap’: Do patients get the choices they want in general practice? – the report looks at the experiences of patients via a nationwide poll of 1,800 adults and semi-structured interviews in ten areas of England including North Tyneside.

The report found:

People do not always get the choices they have a right to.

Under a third (30%) of people are always given a choice of booking method for appointments, and around one in six (16%) are never given this option. This suggests that people aren’t always given or can’t easily find their available choices when booking appointments, and/or the proportion of directly bookable appointments is low.

People want more choice when booking GP appointments.

Organising appointments to work around their lives matters to people, with time of appointment, choice of booking method, appointment type (face-to-face versus remote), and health professional the most desired choices.

Patients face a choice gap.

In all the choice options we offered respondents, we found a gap between how often people wanted particular choices and how often they were offered them. For example, there is a 19% gap for choice about when an appointment takes place: 68% told us they want this choice always or most of the time when booking an appointment, but only 49% told us they get this choice always or most of the time.

The choice gap affects some groups more than others.

The choice gap is generally larger for older people, women, and those unable to work due to health issues or disability.

People often must ask for certain choices, rather than being offered them.

Nearly half (48%) of those who got a choice of a named healthcare professional told us they had to ask for the choice, compared to 40% who got the choice without asking. The same is true for requesting a longer appointment, which 47% got by asking for it, while 37% got it without having to ask.

In North Tyneside, these were some of the responses from patients interviewed by Healthwatch North Tyneside which are quoted in the report:

“Well, I’ve not been to the GP practice since…July last year…when I took poorly and I was in hospital. I just cannot get in a car. When I rang up, I explained how I’m housebound, how I can’t get in a car, and they asked us to hold the line and they spoke to the doctor, and the doctor obliged, saying that they would come out.”

“I just go with the flow…I’ve learned to work around the NHS.”

The report found that it was clear that people want to be more proactively offered a range of meaningful and informed choices. This will help to improve their experiences as well as minimising avoidable contact with services to ensure needs are met as early as possible.

It recommended:

• Patient choice is better monitored through the GP Patient Survey. The GPPS asks the public about choice of appointment location and time, enabling cross-reference of these offers against other questions on public satisfaction. Future iterations of the survey should ask about additional choice options, to include choice of face-to-face appointments, and type of professional delivering care.
• Patient choices are captured at the point of GP registration. Accessibility needs, chaperone preferences, and longer appointment times for those with multiple long-term conditions should all be captured to help GP teams deliver what matters most to patients.
• Patient choice is embedded in all booking approaches. When demand for GP appointments is high, triage is a vital tool to help GP teams manage demand. However, this must embed choice in its design and where total triage is not used, choice of directly bookable appointments must be maximised.
• Continuity of care is improved for those who need it most. Depending on their episode of care, people may prioritise either continuity of care or speed of access. External evidence is clear that people with multiple long-term conditions would particularly benefit from continuity of care. Our research adds that this would also benefit those unable to work due to illness or disability.
• Patients are offered 24-hour access to GP booking platforms. The GP contract should require all GP teams to keep online booking platforms, such as eConsult, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Those requiring urgent care must be signposted to NHS 111, 999, or A&E as part of this process.

The full report can be downloaded here: The ‘Choice Gap’: Do patients get the choices they want in general practice?

Source: https://www.healthwatch.co.uk/report/2025-07-02/choice-gap-do-patients-get-choices-they-want-gp-care