'I've given up trying': Is it getting harder to see a GP?
Getty ImagesIt is 08:00 on a spring morning, and Rebecca Walker from Anglesey is doing the same as hundreds of people around Wales – waiting on the phone to her GP.
She has tried and failed several times in the last six weeks to get an appointment to see a doctor about a painful fracture in a bone in her foot.
Whether you can get through to your GP – and also get to see them – is a mixed picture in Wales, but one watchdog body says it seems to have become harder in the last five years.
One man in nearby Llandudno tells me he gave up trying to get an appointment after becoming concerned with his symptoms, and through desperation eventually forked out to go private - and was quickly diagnosed with cancer.
Many people across Wales have been in touch with BBC Your Voice ahead of the Senedd election to tell us they are concerned about getting an appointment with their GP.
A recent poll by the BBC also found the performance of health and social care services was the second most important issue facing voters in Wales.
Around half feel their health service has deteriorated over the last 12 months.
I spoke to people living in the Bangor Conwy Mon constituency, where shortages of doctors have been an issue for many GP surgeries.
In Holyhead, the town's biggest health centre was close to having no doctors left in early 2024, with GPs leaving for other jobs and going on maternity leave.
In 2025, people in the Penrhyn Bay area of Llandudno expressed concern that a surgery there had just one doctor for 6,338 patients.
Additional doctors were eventually found for both these areas.
One man from Llandudno tells me he tried ringing his GP several times after seeing blood when going to the toilet.
The only way to book an appointment at his surgery was to call at 08:00 and wait in a queue. But every time he tried, the answer was the same – no appointments left, try again tomorrow.
The 55-year-old went to a private doctor and was quickly diagnosed with advanced stage two bowel cancer – he asks to remain anonymous as he is still being treated.
"I was just panicking," he says. "I'd been to see the GP before with occasional spots of blood, and they said to get in touch if it became a regular flow.
"I knew this was serious – but I just couldn't get an appointment.
"In desperation, I even went to the surgery and spoke to the receptionist, who apologised, and said the only way to get an appointment was to keep trying at 8am the next morning."
Over on Anglesey, Rebecca Walker, 50, is with a surgery where you can book appointments online as well as calling at 8am. But she has never been able to get one.
"The staff are very friendly and are obviously trying to help as much as they can," she says.
"However, it's got to the stage where I've given up trying as I can't face spending 40 minutes on hold every morning."
Her local health board, Betsi Cadwaladr says community pharmacy services have been improved to help deal with minor issues, and it has a new service to help when people are struggling to get a GP appointment.
Phil White is a GP who was a partner in a practice in Menai Bridge for 40 years. He's also deputy chair of the Welsh Council of the British Medical Association (BMA), which represents doctors.
He explains that most GP practices are stand-alone businesses under contract to the NHS, which controls the amount of money they get to deliver that contract.
"There are around 13 million GP appointments in Wales a year," he says, "but over the last few years, GPs have been asked to take on more work that used to be done by hospitals.
"The bottom line is that there aren't enough GPs – not because they aren't being recruited, but because the practices can't afford to take on another doctor within the budget they get from the NHS."
Dr White adds that whoever forms the next Senedd government, they need to invest more money in GP services – both more doctors and better facilities at surgeries.
Alex, 24, said getting a GP appointment in Bangor was a "bit tricky", adding that "you have to call at 8am on Monday and its if you get lucky or not really".
Originally from America, Alex, who has been a student for five years explained that when she first arrived in the UK, she tried to register with her local GP surgery but "they never got back to me".
She was only recently been accepted as a patient.
However, Alex said she recognises the strengths of the NHS, adding: "It is free at the end of the day."
"The system in America is faster, but it costs more," she said.
Sion, 20, said that although he has not tried to book a GP appointment himself in a while, he has heard it can be challenging.
"From what I hear from family and friends, it's possible but really difficult.
"It takes ages, and there's this whole sort of conflated hassle of different phone calls and people to talk to," he said.
Previously, Sion explained that he has often relied on family members to help him book appointments, adding: "A lot of the time I don't really know what I'm doing."
He believes an NHS app would be a positive step forward.
"Some people have a hard time calling up the GP because of social anxiety and stuff, so I think an app would make stuff more streamlined and easier."
"It's the very basis of people's contact with the NHS," says Geoff Ryall-Harvey in the Bangor office of the patients' watchdog body Llais.
"People usually say that the service they get from their GP surgery is wonderful, but it's a nightmare to get into it – something which seems to have got worse in the last few years.
"But that also adds to the pressure on emergency departments at Welsh hospitals, and on the ambulance service, both of which end up stepping in if people can't get through to their GP."
Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, whose area includes Bangor Conwy Mon told me it is aware that the problem of getting a GP appointment is "being felt more acutely" in certain areas of north Wales.
Tehmeena Ajmal, chief operating officer said: "We apologise for any distress or inconvenience this may have caused anyone in our community.
"GP practices in Wales all work to national access standards set by the Welsh Government, to improve how patients contact services and experience care, while still allowing flexibility for practices to design access and appointment systems that meet local demand.
"We would encourage anyone struggling to access their GP to raise concerns with their practice or contact our new People's Enquiry And Resolution Service (PEARS) so that individual cases can be looked into in more detail.
"Community pharmacies can also provide expert advice and guidance about treating common ailments, conditions and their symptoms.
"Many pharmacies also provide the Common Ailments Service, offering patients a free NHS consultation with a pharmacist and free medication for some common ailments."
Additional reporting by Maria Cassidy
