Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the number of people who have been waiting more than four weeks for a GP appointment in Hitchin constituency.

The Hitchin constituency sits within the Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board where, in May 2024, 649,000 general practice appointments were delivered. Of those, 29,000 appointments, or 4.1%, were delivered 28 days after booking, 0.7% less than the national average.

In the 12 months up to May 2024, more than 156,000 appointments, which are not usually booked in advance, were delivered more than 28 days after they were booked. There are a number of factors which can influence the timing of appointments, and it is not possible to estimate the time between the patient’s first attempt to contact their surgery and an appointment.