Doctors in Nottinghamshire see more than twice as many patients as the average for England, new NHS data shows.

Data provided by the Integrated Care Board (ICB), which commissions general practice to provide primary medical services, shows that, in total, 644,260 appointments were made in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire as of November 2022.

But the England average for the same period was 294,614 citations.

The ICB has shared the data with Nottinghamshire County Council ahead of the health scrutiny committee meeting on February 21.

At the meeting, heads of healthcare, including Lucy Dadge, the ICB’s director of integration, will speak to councillors.

The documents indicate that the local NHS system has been under “unprecedented pressure” recently with critical incidents in July 2022, September 2022 and December 2022.

But the council says access to GP services is a “recurring issue raised by residents”.

At the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB, there are 131 general practices in a population of over 1.2 million people.

And the data shows that the system is dealing with a high demand for appointments, with numbers much higher than the average for England.

In October 2022, 653,783 appointments were made locally, compared to the average of 301,788 appointments in England.

The documents state that labor demand is also “challenging” with job openings and disease levels.

Data provided to the council shows that the number of face-to-face appointments is on the rise.

During the pandemic, many appointments were only by phone or video call to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Data for November 2022 shows that the number of face-to-face appointments increased to 442,2001 compared to 402,132 in November 2021.

The NHS documents state: “A priority for NHS England is to ensure a range of appointment types are available to patients, and practices are required to offer and promote online and video consultations for their patients.

“As a result, access to the different types of appointments that practices offer has also increased.

“Despite all the challenges, an increase in the number of citations, delivered by general practice, has been shown.”

The documents will be discussed at the health scrutiny meeting next week.

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