Practices had to cancel hundreds of home visits because of fuel shortages, according to a new survey.

Doctors across England, but especially in the South East, have had problems obtaining fuel, according to the British Medical Association. In London and the south east, doctors fear continuing problems, lasting for weeks, according to the BMA survey. About half of these doctors expect staff absences to continue next week – while in Yorkshire 24% expect absences to continue.

In London, doctors also reported staff arriving late in spite of travelling by bus – because of traffic jams caused by cars queuing for petrol stations. This problem was widespread across the country, affecting nearly half of all doctors. In the survey, involving more than 2,000 doctors, some 15% reported that home visits had been cancelled because of the fuel crisis last week.

BMA deputy chair Dr David Wrigley said: “We asked the Government last week to prioritise access to fuel for emergency and essential workers and as yet there has been no affirmative action, leading to doctors telling us that their services will be disrupted as a result. Our survey has shown that nearly 70% of doctors in England said they feared negative impacts at their place of work such as staff being late or not able to attend work at all as a result of problems with filling up their cars. This gives a very real possibility that some patients will miss out on their appointments. We ask that immediate consideration is given to essential and emergency workers in this ongoing situation and that urgent guidance is issued to allow easier access to fuel.”

BMA south east regional chair Dr Christine Clayton said: “The problems with fuel are having an enormous impact, particularly because in some of the more rural surgeries where I work in Surrey, using a bus service is impossible because there isn’t one. I have no other option but to drive so unless we can access fuel, we cannot see our patients.As I drive around the county, I’ve seen huge queues at all the petrol stations, with several noticeably devoid of both petrol and diesel. We must have priority access to fuel and fast.”