Practices managed a record number of appointments, highlighting the “extreme pressures” on services, according to new data.

Including vaccinations, practices undertook 34.6 million appointments in November, 26% more than two years previously. Before the pandemic, practices recorded a record number of appointments in October 2019 – 30,054,362, including 24.3 million face to face appointments. Excluding vaccinations, practices recorded 30.3 million appointments in November, including 19 million face to face appointments.

The British Medical Association said practice teams are now working at an intensity that “unsafe and unsustainable.” It said that, on average, fully qualified GPs are now responsible for 16% more patients than six years ago with a reduction of 1,744 full time equivalent doctors.

BMA GP committee chair Dr Farah Jameel said: “With all services across the NHS facing extreme pressures, in November GPs in England booked over a million appointments a day. That’s enough appointments to cover over half the population of England in a single month. Despite GPs having delivered a record number of appointments, we know that many patients continue to experience long waits to access the care they need as a result of backlog pressures across the wider NHS system. GPs and their teams are burnt out, exhausted and struggling to see an end in sight. This is simply unsustainable and unsafe.”

Dr Jameel added: “We know that an overstretched workforce threatens patient safety and compromises the care patients receive. The vicious cycle of fewer GPs needing to provide more care must end, as both patients and doctors are at risk of harm. The longer this continues, the worse outcomes will get with sicker patients waiting longer to see a doctor.”