Patients returned to GP surgeries in their droves following the pandemic, according to analysis by the Health Foundation, indicating the severe state of the nation’s health.
The charity’s analysis of NHS Digital data reveals the number of primary care appointments increased by four million year-on-year in March 2021 to 28.5 million and there were 14.7 million appointments with a GP.
This compares with 12.8 million in March 2020 and 13.6 million in March 2019, and is the highest number of appointments with GPs per month since records began in November 2017.
The data also reveals telephone consultations helped clear the backlog as March 2021 witnessed the highest ever number of phone appointments with 11.4 million recorded, compared to 6.6 million in March 2020 and 3.5 million in March 2019.
While 15.8 million face to face appointments took place in March 2021 – similar to March 2020 levels, this was almost five million fewer than March 2019.
10% drop in consultations
In total, 31 million fewer primary care appointments were booked between April 2020 and March 2021 compared to the previous 12 months – down from 310 million to 279 million, with the fall in primary care appointments most pronounced in April and May 2020.
These months accounted for 16 million of the 31 million fewer appointments.
The largest fall in primary care appointments across England was in the Midlands which saw a 10% drop between April 2020 and March 2021 compared to the previous 12 months – equivalent to 5.6 million fewer appointments.