The latest figures from NHS England have revealed the GP practices in Weymouth and Portland with the shortest and longest waiting times.

Data released at the end of March for February shows how many appointments at local doctor’s surgeries take place on the same day as an appointment is made and those where patients have to wait over 28 days.

READ: Dorset GP waiting times are second longest in England

The type of appointment is also recorded which includes face-to-face appointments and telephone appointments.

On average 40 per cent of patients were seen on the same day they called up their practice requesting to see a medical professional, slightly below the national average of 43.5 percent.

READ: Dorchester Road Surgery & Royal Crescent/Preston Road merger

In total, there were 49,341 appointments recorded across Weymouth and Portland in February, however, 3,138 patients had to wait 28 days or more for their appointment.

Dorset Echo: Weymouth and Portland doctor's surgery appointments February 2024 (Data sourced from NHS England)Weymouth and Portland doctor's surgery appointments February 2024 (Data sourced from NHS England) (Image: Canva)

The best performing doctor’s practice to see their patients on the same day they called up was Cross Road Surgery, with 55 per cent.

The practice to see the lowest percentage of patients on the same day was Wyke Regis and Lanehouse Medical practice with 29 per cent.

READ: Hospital non-urgent surgery wait times below NHS standard

However, when it comes to waiting more than 28 days for an appointment, Wyke Regis and Lanehouse has the least number of patients waiting that long, with just 5 per cent. Dorchester Road Surgery was the least well performing practice, with 10 per cent of its patients waiting at least four weeks.

Dorset Echo: Weymouth and Portland doctor surgery appointments with a GP in February 2024Weymouth and Portland doctor surgery appointments with a GP in February 2024 (Image: Canva)

The total number of patients that were seen by specifically by their GP in Weymouth and Portland amounted to 17,238, with 43 per cent seen on the same day as their request, again below the national average of 55.8 percent.

A total of 895, or five per cent, waited 28 days or longer which is more than the average across England of 2.1%.

Half of Royal Manor Health Care patients were seen by a doctor on the same day they requested an appointment, whereas only 27.5 per cent of patients from Wyke Regis and Lakehouse were seen by a GP on the same day.

READ: Dorset County Hospital takes action on waiting times for A&E

In terms of patients that had to wait more than 28 days to see a GP, under one per cent of Wyke Regis and Lanehouse patients waited that long, with 8.4 per cent of Royal Manor patients waiting a month or more.

Face-to-face appointments remained the most common type of appointment with almost three quarters of patients seeing a medical practitioner in person across Weymouth and Portland.

This is better than the national average which is 66 per cent, or two thirds.

Dorset Echo: Weymouth and Portland GP appointment types in February 2024 (Data sourced from NHS England)Weymouth and Portland GP appointment types in February 2024 (Data sourced from NHS England) (Image: Canva)

The best performing practice was Royal Manor with 90 per cent of its appointments in February held face-to-face, with Royal Crescent and Preston Road practice a close second with 89 percent.

The surgery with the least amount of in person appointments was The Bridges, with just under half of its patients getting face-to-face time at the practice.

READ: Dorset County Hospital cancer treatment waiting times rise

The figures also showed the practices to have had the most and least amount of telephone appointments throughout the month.

The Bridges had the most with just over a third of patients getting a telephone appointment, whilst Cross Road had just over a quarter of appointments done over the phone.

Royal Manor saw the least amount of telephone appointments with just 20 telephone appointments all month, 0.2 percent of almost 10,000 appointments.

 The national average for phone call appointments in England is 13.5 per cent.