A TOWN GP practice is scaling back the number of same-day appointments it offers due to concern about patient safety.

It comes amid more widespread concern that current levels of GP appointments are not sustainable.

Demand for same-day attention at Newent Doctors Practice has tripled in recent years, with the practice attempting to deal with three or four times the British Medical Association recommended ‘safe’ number of patients per day.

It has led the doctors to trial an adjustment to their system which will see less same-day appointments offered but in turn, more routine GP appointments available to book.

Health chiefs say appointments in Gloucestershire are currently at record levels, with more than 406,000 having spoken to their doctor in October last year alone.

Levels remained high at 399,492 appointments in November.

At Newent Doctors, patient numbers have increased from 10,869 to 11,757 - eight per cent - in the last three years, letters per day needing processing have increased by 50 per cent, phone calls have increased 40 per cent, and the number of appointments offered has gone up 36 per cent.

The practice has almost doubled its number of staff to try and accommodate the increased demand.

In an open letter, the doctors said: “Over the coming months we will continue to work hard with additional training and putting measures in place to ensure those patients who most need our services will be able to access them.

“We are sorry that we are not able to give everyone a GP appointment when they want one, we are doing all we can to manage the unprecedented demand. The safety of all our patients remains our priority.”

They added: “We would like to thank our patients for their patience and support, and all the words of kindness – you are very much appreciated.”

At a recent health overview and scrutiny committee meeting, councillors questioned health chiefs on why the level in the county is so high.

Mark Pietroni, Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust director for safety and medical director, said health services are struggling to catch up with a “demand and capacity mismatch”.

He said this has been linked to the rise in flu this winter, the cold weather and cost of living crisis and long term factors such as an absence of people seeking health treatment over the past couple of years.

“Patients who are waiting two years for things like angiograms and operations. Inevitably some of those patients tip over the edge and present to healthcare with more pain or with angina, etc.

“And something that is really important we don’t neglect is the mental health impact of the lockdowns.

“All of that is driving health seeking behaviour in our population in the context of a health and care system which is incredibly stretched at the moment”.

Mary Hutton, NHS Gloucestershire chief executive officer, said there was a 20 percent increase in the number of people seen in December and explained such levels are not sustainable in the long term.

“We can’t continue with that level of demand as the capacity won’t meet that level of demand.

“We have a history of seeing people on the same day. GPs will step up to the plate and we had some extra capacity put into Cheltenham over Christmas but it’s not something that can be sustained.”