Patients Still Waiting Over a Week to See a GP

Getting a GP appointment is still a bit of a waiting game, though slightly less so than this time last year.

Health Minister Claire Christian told the House of Keys this week that the average waiting time to see a GP is 7.4 days, down from 8.4 days in September 2024.

She said: ‘Currently, the average waiting time across all practices to attend a GP appointment is 7.4 days… On another positive note, across all 11 GP practices, 35.7% of GP appointments occurred on the same day they were booked, and a further 36.3% occurred by day seven.’

That means just over 70% of appointments are happening within a week of being booked, though that doesn’t include the time it takes to actually get through on the phone to make one.

Ms Christian said access to GPs has ‘improved modestly’, but added that A&E waiting times remain under pressure, with the four-hour performance at 63%.

She said delays at the Emergency Department were ‘more influenced by hospital capacity and constraints than GP access’, and highlighted new initiatives like virtual GP sessions in the north, which added 44 appointments in September.

But not everyone’s convinced.

Onchan MHK Rob Callister said some of his constituents were waiting ‘two or three weeks’ for appointments and called for the data to be made public.

Ms Christian admitted the figures only reflect the time between booking and attending, ‘which probably extends that time.’

So yes, things might be slightly better, but getting a GP appointment on the island still seems to require A LOT of effort and time.

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