GPs in Leeds: The 15 surgeries with the longest waits for appointments

The data shows how many patients had to wait more than four weeks for an appointment at their local practice in October, revealing the strain many surgeries are under.

Across England, 49 per cent appointments in October took place on the day they were booked, analysis of the NHS Digital data found. However, 640,000 appointments – three per cent of the total – took place more than 28 days later. This did not include appointments which are usually booked in advance, such as medication reviews.

And in some surgeries, the proportion of patients waiting more than four weeks was far higher.

There are several factors that influence the length of time a patient has to wait for an appointment, including availability at the practice, patient availability and the urgency of the issue. Earlier this week, the Allerton and Westfield medical centres in north Leeds told patients that it was now “impossible” to safely meet all demand and it must prioritise care for the patients most clinically at risk.

The British Medical Association, the trade union for doctors, said the monthly figures were the “highest level of GP appointments on record”. And the Royal College of GPs said the figures showed “how hard GPs and their teams are working to deliver increasingly complex care to growing number of patients, against a backdrop of severe workforce shortages”.

These are the 15 GP practices in Leeds with the highest percentage of appointments involving waits of more than 28 days. Practices which had fewer than 100 appointments in October have been omitted.