Legal News

The Welsh government has announced that new figures show that more GP practices in Wales are open between 8am and 6.30pm during the week and more early morning and evening appointments are being made available.

In 2016, a total of 85% of GP practices were open for daily core hours or within an hour of them – an increase from 60% in 2011 – with only 3% of GP practices closed for half-a-day on one or more weekdays, a fall compared to 4% in 2015.

Furthermore, 84% of practices offered appointments at any time between 5pm and 6.30pm every weekday, compared to 79% in 2015. The percentage of practices offering appointments before 8am on at least two weekdays increased from 16% in 2015 to 19% in 2016.

Welsh Assembly Health Secretary Vaughan Gething said:

“We know that access to primary care services is extremely important to people. In Taking Wales Forward – our programme for government – we committed to continuing to improve access to GP surgeries and these figures demonstrate we are delivering this. These figures also show that more appointments are available for people at more convenient times – I am pleased to see that the trend of improvement has been continued for 2016.

“I want to say thank you to our GPs and their teams, who are working hard to extend their opening hours in Wales. They are also working with other health professionals to ensure that people receive their care from the right person – this might mean seeing a pharmacist, physiotherapist or a nurse. This will allow GPs to focus their time and expertise on people with complex care needs. We will continue to work collaboratively with GPs and other professions to improve access and patient experience.”

Duncan Lewis Clinical Negligence Solicitors

Duncan Lewis clinical negligence solicitors can advise NHS patients who have suffered injury as a result of GP negligence on how to make a no win no fee claim for compensation, including claims relating to failure to diagnose, delays in diagnosis and failure to refer or take X-rays or scans, as well as GP prescribing errors.

GP negligence claims have to be made within three years of the date when it became evident that negligence had occurred – children can make clinical negligence claims up to the age of 21.

For expert legal advice on no win no fee GP Negligence Claims, call Duncan Lewis clinical negligence solicitors on 0333 772 0409.