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Warning Of Longer Waiting Times To See A GP

Doctors are warning that patients could be at risk if a Government plan to increase funding for GPs fails to be implemented.

The Royal College of GPs says the number of appointments being offered with more than a week's waiting time could rise by more than 40% over the next five years.

Measuring each attempted appointment over the past year, patients had to wait more than a week on 69 million occasions, while the RCGP has calculated that number could rise to 98 million by 2021.

Dr Steve Mowle, from the RCGP, told Sky News: "Unless there's urgent action by the Health Secretary and the Government, these figures are only going to get worse and worse.

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"We know part of the solution is the GP Forward view which was announced in April but we are worried now that with a new government, Brexit and the financial situation, that this promise might not come true."

The Department of Health says it "disagrees" with the figures and insists it is investing investing £2.4bn to recruit thousands more GPs and free up appointments for patients.

Sky News has been to a surgery in northwest London where almost everyone had an example of a one to two-week wait for a doctors' appointment.

The Ridgeway Surgery in Harrow runs a drop-in clinic which has seen increasing numbers of patients who can't get an appointment elsewhere.

On some days they treat more than 200 walk-in patients a day.

GP Dr Lloyd said: "One of the most common reasons we see patients here at the walk-in centre is because they can't get an appointment at their GP or they are waiting two to three weeks sometimes to see their doctor.

"At the moment we've got a disconnected service, the records that a GP keeps are not visible to us ... and patients don't know where to go for the right kind of care."

Aparna Mirchandani had brought her son Kiaan to the clinic to have his eczema checked.

This isn't the family's closest doctor but they find it almost impossible to get an appointment at their local surgery.

She said: "It's really concerning because you don't have many options ... With this surgery, with the children they are really good and you can have an appointment on the day, but with the adults it's usually around a two-week wait at the earliest."