Stray Ferret Focus: How we probed the GP appointment problem

Some articles can be written quickly. Others take time — sometimes rather a lot of time.

Welcome to our monthly look at what goes on behind the scenes when we are working on articles at the Stray Ferret. We think the effort we put in distinguishes us from the pack and hopefully provides an additional reason, beyond our seven-days-a-week rolling news service, to subscribe.

One recent example of this was my investigation into waiting times to see your local GP. 

There can't be many people who have never struggled to get a doctor's appointment – it seems to be one of the universal frustrations of our age.

After hearing from readers about their difficulties, the Stray Ferret did some digging to find out just how hard getting an appointment is in our area, and how it could be made easier.

We contacted all 17 doctor's surgeries in the Harrogate district and asked what the current waiting time is for a non-urgent appointment with a GP.

Ten practices responded – some of them only after a lengthy delay – and their answers varied widely. The shortest wait was five days, and the longest was 25 days. The average wait was almost two weeks.

We wanted to find out what the problem was and how it could be solved, so we spoke to GPs and practice managers, as well as the chair of a Harrogate surgery's patient participatory group, and the chair of the Yorkshire Regional Council of the British Medical Association.

In the process, we dispelled some myths – the UK does not have a shortage of qualified doctors, for example – and found that many in the medical world feel that more money would help fix the problem.

We then linked our findings to the national context in light of the new prime minister's early comments on NHS funding.

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