More than one million patients a month are having to wait four weeks to see their GP, with rural areas the worst affected.
NHS data reveals there were 1.3 million appointments in May which had been booked at least four weeks earlier — up from 912,000 in May 2022.
It means one in 20 people now endure waits of at least 28 days after contacting their GP surgery to get an appointment, putting them at risk of delayed or missed diagnosis.
Worsening long waits have been blamed for driving hundreds of thousands of patients to A&E for basic care, with others giving up on trying to see a doctor altogether. Analysis of monthly NHS figures by the Liberal Democrats shows a stark postcode lottery
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