Three million patients a month are waiting more than three weeks for a GP appointment, according to official figures that reveal the scale of the pressure on surgeries.
This includes more than a million people waiting four weeks between booking an appointment and seeing the doctor, according to data released by the NHS for the first time.
The figures will pile further pressure on health chiefs to deal with the chronic shortage of GPs. There are 1,000 fewer family doctors than when ministers pledged to recruit 5,000 more in 2015.
A review by the former national cancer director published last week concluded that Britain’s poor cancer survival rates were partly due to the lack of timely access to GP care.
British cancer patients die sooner