Additional information on GP appointments added to monthly statistics publications

Information on the length and context of GP appointments is being included in NHS Digital’s statistics on consultations in general practice from late April 2022.

Appointments in General Practice, March 2022 is the latest publication in a monthly series containing experimental statistics about activity and usage of GP appointments.

It includes information such as the number of appointments, the number which were attended or not and the time between booking and appointment date.

The report which was published on 28th April also contains three new measures:

• Figures on the duration of consultations, in minutes. This field is recorded differently depending on the practice’s system supplier, which leads to variations in data quality that NHS Digital is continuing to address with system suppliers and practices
• Further detail on the context of the activity, such as whether it was an appointment involving the patient directly or clinical activities on behalf of the patient. There is also a further breakdown into the category of the activity, such as routine general consultation, planned clinic or home visit
• More detail on the healthcare professional leading appointments, broken down to roles including GPs, nurses and staff providing other direct patient care