Health directors have admitted that the 8am phone rush has to change to meet unprecedented levels of demand for GPs.

The Essex Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee heard that while there was a reduction in demand on primary care services during the national lockdowns, the demand has significantly increased compared to pre-pandemic numbers.

In Mid and South Essex, an additional 314,000 appointments were undertaken in 2021/22.

The current demands on GPs have been described as “unprecedented”.

William Guy, director of primary care for Mid and South Essex, told the committee on Friday: “It is challenging for our population to get access to primary care and I think we need to acknowledge that that is the situation.

“There are different perceptions as to why that’s happening I think what we’re trying to demonstrate that is that that is largely driven by demand rather than by GPs shutting their doors as it’s kind of commonly perceived in in some areas

“I think it’s also worth noting that whilst the Covid pandemic has had a significant impact on the way primary care is delivered, primary care has been the subject of a transformation agenda for a long time.”

The total number of GP consultations in Mid and South went from 5,772,059 in 2019/220 to 6,086,126 in 2021/22.

The stress on GPs services has come even with a sharp decrease in face to face appointments – from 83 per cent in 2019/20 to 65 per cent in 2021/22.

Mr Guy said increases in demands needs to be met with changes in the way people try to get an appointment in the first place – specifically the notorious rush at 8am when the appointment telephone lines open.

He said: “We’ve got to develop a system that can cater for the needs that present so the patients have got confidence that they can access services at a different time and get a response

“At the moment patients quite rightly are calling at 8am because they believe that’s the only way they’re going to be able to access primary care. You sit on the telephone and then keep re-dialing until you get through

“My need wasn’t urgent and I would have been quite happy to wait for a couple of weeks for an appointment but that’s not the system we’ve got at the moment.

“Therefore we do need to change that model in its entirety.”