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<p>According to the latest GP Patient Survey, published in July 2016, 19.3% of patients
saw or spoke to a health professional a week or more after initially contacting their
surgery for an appointment. However, of those who waited a week or more, 33.3% said
they wanted an appointment a week or more later, and 28.6% said they didn’t have a
specific day in mind. 0.7% of total survey respondents said that they went to accident
and emergency last time they wanted to see or speak to a general practitioner (GP)
or nurse at their GP surgery, because they were not able to get an appointment or
were offered an inconvenient appointment.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The Government is
committed to improving access to general practice, in part to reduce pressure on other
parts of the National Health Service. By 2020, everyone will have access to routine
evening and weekend appointments. We are, therefore, increasing investment in general
practice by £2.4 billion by 2020/21 – this represents a 14% real terms increase. We
are also committed to increasing the number of doctors working in general practice
by 5,000 by 2020, in addition to providing another 5,000 extra other staff, for example
mental health therapists and clinical pharmacists. Health Education England recruited
the highest ever number of GP trainees in 2016.</p>
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