INCREASING numbers of patients across the district are having to wait longer than a week for a doctor’s appointment, a survey has revealed.

Of the patients in the Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) area who responded to an NHS study, 20 per cent said they had to wait a week or more to see a GP or nurse last time they booked an appointment.

The figure is up from 12 per cent five years ago.

For Bradford Districts CCG, the latest figure is 19 per cent, compared to 13 per cent in 2013.

Last year, Prime Minister Theresa May vowed to ensure that all GP surgeries would open from 8am to 8pm, seven days a week, unless they proved there was no demand.

A CCG spokesman said: “We recognise the challenges we face across Bradford district and Craven when it comes to delivering GP services to a diverse population with a broad range of healthcare needs and over a wide geographical area.

“As is being experienced across the wider healthcare system, practices are facing increasing demand and difficulties recruiting staff to frontline roles.

“However, the GP surveys for our three CCG areas show that there are some practices that are performing to a high standard in terms of patient satisfaction and they highlight the trust that people in our districts have in their doctors.

“Practices are working very hard to improve access to primary care services, including GP appointments.

“One way we are doing this is by developing online services to increase choice and improve how patients can access appointments and repeat prescriptions.

“Having already started to provide an extended access service to 50 per cent of our local population, we are phasing this scheme so that everyone across Bradford district and Craven will have the ability to access evening and weekend appointments.

“In the NHS Bradford City and District CCGs’ area, the extension of this scheme will see an extra 120 hours of practice time made available to patients, with an additional 80 hours across the NHS Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven CCG area. This will include additional GP and nurse appointments as well as extra services such as physiotherapy.”

But Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said patients were still waiting too long for appointments and many were not getting an appointment when they wanted one.

“The plain truth is that existing GPs and our teams are working to absolute capacity and we just don’t have sufficient GPs to offer enough appointments,” she added.