GP appointments in West Sussex drop sharply in lockdown: latest figures

More than 100,000 fewer than expected GP appointments were recorded in West Sussex in April, in a sign Covid-19 is putting people off trips to the doctor.

The Royal College of GPs has urged patients to seek help if they need it, and said surgeries must have adequate resources to cope with a predicted increase in demand as the lockdown eases.

But the NHS says changes in how practices operate during the pandemic may have affected the figures, with remote sessions underreported.

NHS Digital data shows that patients booked in to see their doctor on 251,964 occasions in the NHS West Sussex CCG area in April.

This was down from 375,804 for the same month a year before – a 33% drop.

The decrease was the same as that across England as a whole, where 7.7 million fewer appointments were made in April than 12 months previously, a reduction of a third.