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How to read the numbers

Source

Everything on this site comes from two open datasets. Appointments in General Practice is published monthly by NHS England (official statistics in development), about four weeks after the end of the month it covers, usually on the last Thursday. Its Annex 1 practice-level workbook gives, for each GP practice in England, counts of appointments by the gap between the day they were booked and the day they took place, by appointment type, by mode and by who they were with. Practice names, addresses and telephone numbers come from the NHS Organisation Data Service practice register. Both are released under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Locations and council areas are looked up from postcodes with postcodes.io.

The three headline measures

Routine appointments seen within 7 days and within 14 days: NHS England defines routine (non-clinically urgent) appointments as those the practice recorded under the national categories "General Consultation Routine" and "Care Home Visit". The percentage is of those appointments that took place within 7 or 14 days of the date they were booked. NHS England first published these at practice level for June 2026.

Urgent appointments seen the same day: appointments recorded as "General Consultation Acute", and the share that took place on the day they were booked.

England figures are NHS England's national totals. Area and council figures are weighted by appointment counts, so large practices count for more.

Rankings

Practices are ranked by the routine-within-7-days measure, 1st being the highest share. Only practices with at least 100 routine appointments in the month are ranked (50 for the urgent measure); below that a handful of appointments swings the percentage too much to mean anything. The colour of a figure shows whether it is at least 5 points above (green) or below (red) the England figure.

Caveats, in order of importance

The gap starts at booking, not at first contact. The data does not record how long a patient spent trying to get through to the practice, or how many days before booking they first tried. A practice that only lets you book on the day will show a very high same-day share whether or not it was easy to get an appointment.
The gap includes the patient's choice. A follow-up booked for three weeks' time counts as a three-week gap.
Practices classify their own appointments. Which appointment book slots count as "acute" or "routine" is mapped by each practice, and NHS England notes the mapping is not consistent everywhere. Some practices leave most appointments unmapped; those appear in the totals but not in the urgent and routine measures.
Only appointments in GP practice systems are counted. Work done by Primary Care Networks in their own systems, and much of what practices do outside an appointment book, is not here.
Small numbers. Percentages for practices with few appointments are unreliable and are shown greyed out.
Statistics in development. NHS England may change definitions; GP Waits follows the published files and links each month's source.

What this site does not do

It does not say which practice is best for you, whether a practice is accepting new patients, or anything about the quality of care. For that, use the NHS website, the Care Quality Commission and the GP Patient Survey. Nothing here is medical advice; if you need care urgently, contact your practice, NHS 111 or 999.

Updates and corrections

GP Waits is refreshed within a week of each NHS England release; the current data is July 2026, published 27 August 2026. Corrections: contact.