RBWM and Slough GP patients get seen faster than in neighbouring areas

People getting GP appointments in Maidenhead, Windsor and Slough are waiting for less time than in neighbouring areas, new data has shown.

NHS Frimley Integrated Care Board (ICB) is the body which organises and funds GP and other NHS services in the area.

According to NHS England numbers, in September this year, Frimley saw the fewest patients forced to wait more than 28 days for care in the South East.

Throughout England, the most common length of time waited for care is generally less than a day. Patients call up/book online and get a same-day appointment with their GP in 44 per cent of cases on average.

While this is fewer than half of all appointments, this still includes by far the largest chunk; data also looked at how many appointments were held one day after booking; 2–7 days after; 8–14 days; 15–21 days and 22–28 days.

For every South East ICB, the largest proportion of appointments were on the same day.

Same-day appointments

In terms of same-day appointments, Frimley is beating both England and South East averages.

While the England average is 44 per cent, and the South East’s is 43, Frimley’s proportion of same-day appointments is 46 per cent.

That puts it above all the surrounding ICBs except NHS Surrey Heartlands (48 per cent).

The other ICBs are: Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West; Hampshire and Isle of Wight; Kent and Medway; and Sussex.

Kent was the worst performing here, at 40 per cent.

Within Frimley’s area, 185,926 of its 400,647 appointments in September took place within the same day as booking.

A much smaller proportion of appointments, about 7 per cent, were held the day after, and another 19 per cent were within 2–7 days.

28+ day waits

NHS data stops counting specific lengths of time between bookings and appointments if it takes longer than 28 days for a patient to get one.

In terms of these long waits, Frimley scores well compared to its neighbours and nationally.

Only about 3.5 per cent of Frimley's appointments were taking place more than 28 days after booking.

This makes Frimley by far the best performing of the bunch locally, decidedly above the England average (5.7 per cent) and the South East one (6.2 per cent).

Number of appointments

Frimley is also doing reasonably well in the number of appointments it is offering per practice.

Looking at 66 out of 67 open GP practices within the ICB’s area of operation, Frimley saw an average of 6,070 appointments per practice.

That does put it lower than the South East average (6,271), but this average is pulled up by high numbers within one ICB – Hampshire and Isle of Wight, which held nearly
8,000 appointments per practice.

Frimley's average number of appointments is third of six locally, after Sussex ICB.

It is also higher than the England average, which is 5,216 appointments per practice.

A spokesperson for Frimley ICB said: “General Practices across Frimley ICB work hard to provide a good level of service to their patients.

“This comes from high levels of commitment from practice teams working with patients to implement modern practices, such as supporting patients to use digital tools (NHS App), engaging patients through their patient participation groups, and adopting ways of supporting the right patient at the right time through personalised health data and information provided directly from the patients themselves.

“We are very proud of our general practices and thank them for all their work now and in the future.”