public services · the national record
GP appointments in England: how many, how fast, and by whom
General practice in England recorded 33,928,829 appointments in its own systems in July 2026, or 34,912,870 once Primary Care Network clinics and covid vaccination are added in, NHS England's own headline count. 44.7 per cent happened on the day they were booked and 82.01 per cent within a fortnight. The split by clinical urgency, first published in June 2026, shows the acute cases judged clinically urgent were seen the same day 77.0 per cent of the time, while routine, non urgent appointments took longer, with 76.8 per cent dealt with inside fourteen days.
How to read this
Figures are GP Appointments Data (GPAD): appointments recorded in GP practice appointment systems, covering 98.9 per cent of open practices in July 2026 and including covid vaccination delivered in general practice. This is the base NHS England itself uses for every percentage breakdown in the publication. It excludes appointments recorded separately in Primary Care Network systems (about 1 million a month, shown only as a headline total added on top) and it is not a full count of GP workload: telephone triage calls that do not become appointments, and clinical correspondence, are not captured here.
NHS England, Appointments in General Practice, July 2026 edition, published 27 August 2026 (data covers 1 February 2024 to 31 July 2026). Official statistics in development. Every headline figure on this page is asserted at build time against NHS England's own published Key Facts for July 2026; the build fails on any mismatch.
the national picture
33,928,829 appointments in July 2026
GP practices recorded 33,928,829 appointments in their own systems in July 2026, from 98.9 per cent of open practices. Add in appointments recorded on Primary Care Network systems and covid vaccinations, and NHS England's headline count is 34,912,870. A year earlier, in July 2025, the practice system count was 32,524,802, so this July is 4.3 per cent higher; two years earlier, in July 2024, it was 31,195,117. In June 2019, before the pandemic and before Primary Care Networks existed in their current form, the equivalent publication recorded 22,825,905 appointments from 95.3 per cent of practices, a lower coverage that means the two totals are not simply comparable.
booking to appointment
44.7 per cent seen the same day
In July 2026, 44.7 per cent of appointments took place on the day they were booked, and 82.01 per cent were within fourteen days. The recent run shows this holding in a narrow band: 80.89 per cent in April, 81.67 per cent in May, 81.71 per cent in June and 82.01 per cent in July, all as restated in this edition. Against their first publication, April's figure (80.90 per cent) has been revised down by 0.01 points, May's (81.65 per cent) revised up by 0.02 points and June's (81.71 per cent) is unchanged, as late arriving practice data is added, which is routine for this collection.
the urgency split, second edition
The official split by clinical urgency
June 2026 was the first edition to split booking to appointment time by how urgent the appointment was judged to be; July 2026 is the second. Clinically urgent appointments, 6,648,169 of them in July, were seen the same day 77.0 per cent of the time. Non urgent, routine appointments, 8,929,155 of them, were slower: 58.1 per cent within seven days and 76.8 per cent within fourteen. These two groups together cover 15,577,324 appointments, 45.9 per cent of the July total, because the urgency mapping reaches only three of the national appointment categories, General Consultation Acute, General Consultation Routine and Care Home Visit; the rest of general practice activity, including clinical triage, planned clinics and medication reviews, is not classified by urgency in this release.
Clinically urgent (6,648,169) plus non urgent (8,929,155) appointments cover 45.9 per cent of the 33,928,829 GP practice system total. The rest fall outside these two categories and are not split by urgency.
who delivers the appointment
43.8 per cent of appointments are with a GP
43.8 per cent of July 2026 appointments were carried out by a GP and 18.5 per cent by a nurse; the remainder went to other direct patient care roles such as physiotherapists, pharmacists and paramedics working in general practice, plus a share recorded against data quality codes or left unknown. NHS England now publishes two different staff classifications side by side, an older Healthcare Professional Type and a newer SDS Role Group, and the two disagree slightly on the GP share; NHS England's own headline figure, and the one used throughout this page, is the SDS Role Group basis.
how the appointment happened
60.1 per cent face to face, most of the rest by phone
60.1 per cent of July 2026 appointments were carried out face to face, 24.4 per cent by telephone and 11.9 per cent by video or online. In June 2019, the nearest pre pandemic edition held for comparison, 80.7 per cent of appointments were face to face and 13.6 per cent were by telephone; video and online consultations were a rounding error at 0.5 per cent. NHS England's own guidance notes that from March 2020 the mapping of appointment types to modes changed, so some of this shift reflects how appointments are now recorded as well as how care is delivered.
July 2026
June 2019
the postcode dimension
Which integrated care boards keep patients waiting longest
The share of appointments still unresolved after two weeks from booking, by integrated care board, July 2026, best to worst, on the same Table 3d basis as the national headline. Nationally 18.0 per cent of appointments took more than fourteen days to happen; the best performing board stood at 9.9 per cent, the worst at 26.2 per cent.
Share of GP practice system appointments booked more than fourteen days ahead, by integrated care board, July 2026. Source: NHS England, Table 3d.
missed appointments
4.3 per cent did not attend
4.3 per cent of July 2026 appointments were recorded as did not attend, against 89.5 per cent attended; the remainder are left with an unknown final status, typically because the booking was never updated after the appointment slot passed. The did not attend rate has stayed close to this level over the last year.
questions this raises
What the July 2026 figures can and cannot tell you
- How long do you wait for a GP appointment in England?
- In July 2026, 44.7 per cent of appointments happened on the day they were booked and 82.0 per cent within a fortnight. That is a national average across every kind of appointment; the urgency tables show it splits sharply by how urgent the appointment is, and the geography section below shows it also splits sharply by integrated care board.
- Do clinically urgent GP appointments get seen faster?
- Yes, on the same day measure: 77.0 per cent of appointments coded as clinically urgent, meaning a general consultation for an acute problem, were seen the day they were booked, against 44.7 per cent for all appointments. But this measure has only been published twice and covers only 45.9 per cent of appointments, so it cannot yet show whether urgent care is being correctly prioritised across the rest of general practice activity.
- Has GP care moved back to face to face since the pandemic?
- Mostly, but not all the way. Face to face appointments were 60.1 per cent of the July 2026 total, up from the pandemic low but still below the 80.7 per cent recorded in June 2019. Telephone appointments, 24.4 per cent in July 2026 against 13.6 per cent in June 2019, have settled at a permanently higher share. NHS England notes the way appointment types map to modes changed from March 2020, so part of this shift is measurement, not only practice.
- Is it always a GP who sees you?
- No. Only 43.8 per cent of July 2026 appointments were with a GP; 18.5 per cent were with a nurse, and the rest with other direct patient care roles such as physiotherapists, pharmacists and paramedics now working in general practice, part of the wider primary care workforce NHS England has been building since 2019.
- Does where you live affect how quickly you are seen?
- Yes. In July 2026 the best performing integrated care board kept as much as 90.1 per cent of appointments within a fortnight, while the worst managed only 73.8 per cent, a gap of 16.3 percentage points on the same measure and the same month.
- How many GP appointments are missed?
- 4.3 per cent were recorded as did not attend in July 2026, against 89.5 per cent attended. The remainder have no recorded outcome at all, which NHS England attributes mainly to bookings that were never updated in the practice system after the appointment slot passed, rather than to a further layer of missed care.
Sources & method
Data provenance
- NHS England, Appointments in General Practice, July 2026 ↗· Open Government Licence v3.0
- NHS England, Appointments in General Practice, June 2019 (archived edition, used for the since 2019 comparison) ↗· Open Government Licence v3.0
Caveats & data notes
- GPAD is official statistics in development, NHS England's term for management information that has not yet been assessed against full national statistics standards. Methods and coverage can change between editions.
- Figures on this page are the GP practice appointment systems total, which includes covid vaccination delivered in general practice but excludes appointments recorded separately in Primary Care Network systems (about 1 million appointments in July 2026). NHS England's own headline count adds the two together to reach 34,912,870; this page uses that figure only on the stat strip, not as the base for any percentage.
- The clinically urgent and non urgent tables (3i and 3j) were introduced in the June 2026 edition and cover only appointments mapped to three of the national appointment categories (General Consultation Acute, General Consultation Routine and Care Home Visit), 45.9 per cent of the July 2026 total. The rest of general practice activity is not classified by urgency in this release.
- A national push in 2026 and 2027 to code more appointments as clinically urgent could shift the same day rate in future editions for reasons of coding practice rather than a change in how quickly patients are actually seen.
- Figures are revised between editions as more practices' data arrives. This edition restates June 2026's total up by 3,253 appointments, May 2026's up by 32,613 and April 2026's up by 9,903 compared with when those months were first published.
- NHS England publishes two different staff type classifications, Healthcare Professional Type and SDS Role Group, which disagree slightly (44.5 per cent versus 43.8 per cent GP share in July 2026). This page uses SDS Role Group throughout, matching NHS England's own headline and stated future direction.
- The 2019 comparison uses the June 2019 edition of the same NHS Digital publication, the nearest pre pandemic edition held, not a fresh analysis of raw data and not the same calendar month; practice coverage was lower then (95.3 per cent of practices against 98.9 per cent in July 2026). NHS England also notes that from March 2020 the assignment of appointment types to appointment modes changed, so the face to face comparison reflects some change in recording as well as in care.
- Figures are for England only. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland publish separate primary care activity statistics on different definitions.
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