Doubts raised over ICB’s GP appointment statistics in Portsmouth
Councillors in Portsmouth have raised concerns over difficulties in securing GP appointments, questioning claims by the NHS about the timeliness of bookings.
At a recent health overview and scrutiny panel meeting, Portsmouth City Councillors reviewed a report presented by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board (ICB), which oversees NHS services across the county.
The report highlighted a sharp increase in demand for primary care, noting that Portsmouth recorded 19,000 more GP appointments in 2024 compared to the previous year. In October 2024 alone, 123,000 GP visits were recorded. According to the ICB, 43 per cent of these appointments “took place on either the same day or the next day from the initial booking by the patient”.
Councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson challenged this statistic, recounting his own experience of being offered an appointment a week after contacting his surgery. “Feels to me like a delay but in your statistics it isn’t,” he said.
Cllr Vernon-Jackson also shared frustration about being referred three times before finally securing a GP appointment. He added: “The waste of public resources to get where I wanted to in the first place is depressing.”
Councillor Graham Heaney shared similar concerns, describing his experience with the online E-consult programme, which he found unavailable outside standard working hours. The inconvenience led him to forgo addressing his health concern, stating: “There is still something that’s bothering me but I haven’t done anything about it.”
Councillor Mark Jeffery, chairman of the scrutiny panel, echoed these concerns, stating that the statistics did not align with his experience or that of others he knows, casting further doubt on the 43 per cent figure. He questioned whether the ICB had conducted qualitative research into patient experiences.
James Roach, the ICB's primary care director, responded: “There aren’t any surveys that get into the detail of the patient journey.
“There is a process within the ICB where we do review the efficacy of those systems. Do we need to actually test it from front to end in an anonymous way? We can certainly look at that.”
Roach acknowledged that the public understands they may not always get an immediate appointment, but added: “What we’ve got to be better at is giving a reason why and signposting.”
He added that the ICB plans to produce a more detailed report analysing the proportions of various appointment types.