NASGP estimates that sessional GPs could deliver an additional 11.5 million appointments a year if only more practices adopted a decentralised booking system, the chair of NASGP told GP Online.
More than 6,800 sessions a year were unbooked in 2024 at six ICBs that NASGP has partnered with, covering around 11% of all GP practices in England and representing roughly 100,000 appointments.
Scaled up across England, NASGP estimates that this untapped resource represents around 11.5m appointments.
Accounting for duplicate capacity, because of locums working across regions, NASGP believes that the true total for untapped GP appointments is likely to be more like six million appointments, just over half of the estimate.
NASGP currently works with Frimley, Mid and South Essex, Hertfordshire and West Essex, Buckinghamshire Oxfordshire and West Berkshire, Suffolk and North East Essex and Gloucestershire ICBs.
Dr Richard Fieldhouse, NASGP chair, said: “It’s well established that famine is not caused by lack of food, it’s caused by lack of a means of distribution.
“WhatsApp, the traditional method used in so many areas where locums struggle to get work, has placed locums in a weak position, and for practices only gives them a quick fix with little or no opportunity for strong professional relationships.
“Our LocumDeck data shows that, despite practices in our funded areas having the same core funding and same access to ARRS funding, when most GP locums and practices use a platform that shares locum availability the number of sessions worked per month has remained strong for three years.”