Leicestershire residents are among the worst off when it comes to the postcode lottery around getting a GP appointment.

Data released by the NHS revealed Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland ranked 10th worst in February for how quickly patients were able to see a doctor.

Locally, 11.2 per cent of those trying to get an appointment had to wait more than 22 days. Conversely, 67 per cent were seen within less than a week.

Comparatively, the area which had the worst rates, Gloucestershire, left 16.6 per cent of patients waiting more than 22 days and saw 60.6 per cent within a week.

The area which performed the best, North Central London, saw 3.2 per cent of patients facing the longest delays and 80.6 per cent were seen in seven days or less.

The Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board (ICB), responsible for overseeing healthcare locally, said many of those who have waited longer for their appointments would have scheduled them in advance. "Many routine appointments are booked in advance, which does not necessarily mean that a patient has had to wait for an appointment, but that their appointment has been booked more than two weeks ahead," a spokesperson for the ICB said.

The board added: "The ICB is committed to understanding and optimising all aspects of access to general practice in LLR, to support the provision of services that best meet the needs of the local populations. In Jan 2024, 46,771 more appointments were provided in our practices, compared with Jan 2023.

"LLR is the best performing ICB in the Midlands in terms of numbers of appointments offered per 1000 patients. 667,001 total appointments were offered in LLR as at Jan 2024.

"Over 40 per cent of appointments were provided on the same day, and fewer than 20% of appointments were more than two weeks after contact with the practice."

Each healthcare area has additional capacity outside of "normal" surgery hours, including on Saturdays, the board continued, and all practices can utilise our Urgent Care Hubs to support patients whose care needs cannot safely wait until the next day. Local services also increased appointments over the winter specifically for patients with acute respiratory infections, the ICB said.

It added it remains committed to work with local services in the coming financial year, 2024/25 to "ensure the access they provide is designed to best meet the health and wellbeing needs of their populations, ensuring that [the board has] a balance of same-day and planned and advance appointments available". The ICB also said it is "committed" to using the Pharmacy First approach through which people can receive some care from their local pharmacy, freeing up doctors appointments.

The board also said the data released by the NHS for February has yet to be validated. In January, it said 42.3 per cent of GP appointments were same day and 80.4 per cent of people were seen within two weeks.

Across England, a total of 30.4 million GP appointments took place in February, according to the latest data from the NHS. More than three-quarters of those (77.0 per cent) took place on the same day of booking, the Reach Data Unit said.

That is a drop from 80.7 per cent in January and 84.3 per cent in December, but is similar to the 78.5 per cent in February last year and the 76.1 per cent from September 2021, when records first began. A total of 2.7 million patients, however, had to wait over 22 days from the time they booked the appointment to it taking place.

That works out as one in every 11 appointments (8.8 per cent) that took place in February. That is an improvement on 9.5 per cent of appointments in January, and is down from 13.4 per cent in October which was a record high.

Dr Amanda Doyle, national director for primary care and community services at NHS England, said: "The NHS is meeting its targets, with hard working GPs and their teams making tremendous progress across the country. But we know there is more to do – that's why the NHS is implementing the major plan we announced last year to improve access to GP services, which includes upgrading telephone systems to make it easier for patients to contact their surgery, and we've boosted the workforce with an additional 36,000 staff joining GP teams since 2019, all helping to deliver even more appointments."

Primary Care Minister Andrea Leadsom said: "We are determined to make our healthcare system faster, simpler and fairer for all patients, and this data shows that through the incredible work of GPs and their teams, we are now delivering significantly more appointments per working day compared to the same time last year. We are committed to ensuring that everyone who needs an appointment is able to get one, and our primary care recovery plan demonstrates how we will deliver for all patients who use our fantastic NHS.

"Our goals are clear, and we have already delivered on a number of pledges – including exceeding our target of 50 million additional general practice appointments per year, several months ahead of schedule."