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The demand for better health care and access to doctors continues to grow as more and more patients express their concerns over their unreachable general practitioners, GPs. In a survey conducted by the Patients Association, roughly 60 percent of patients in the United Kingdom could not immediately reach their primary care physicians for a general consultation even after asking for one, and were forced to wait up to two days before getting a check up. Two-thirds of the surveyed patients do not believe that their out-of-hours GP, the GP that is usually offered when the patient's usual doctor is not free, is safe and a half of the patients stated that they were upset with the level of care that they received from local services. This survey suggests that major changes need to be made in regards to medical care and accessibility in East London.

The trend toward using out-of-hours GPs started when a 2004 contract allowed GPs to decide whether or not they wanted to work evenings and weekends. This forced patients to look for medical care from local services and other private firms that specialize in out-of-hours care, and many of these patients are currently not satisfied. The survey interviewed 1,500 patients regarding their consultations with medical professionals in the evenings and weekends. The association found that 65 percent of the patients did not feel safe in the hands of the out-of-hours services, especially if they were suffering from an urgent medical issue. 47 percent of the patients stated that over the past two years, the level of service was unsatisfactory. 29 percent of the patients stated that they could not even contact an available doctor.

"Public confidence in out-of-hours services is worryingly low and that is not always as easy as it should be to get an appointment with a GP. We need an NHS in every community that operates effectively, safely and compassionately during and outside office hours," the chief executive of the association, Katherine Murphy stated.

Other statistics that the report found were that 57 percent of patients had a hard time trying to reach someone through the phone in order to schedule a consultation and 10 percent of people had to wait at least two weeks to see their GPs during normal working hours.

The report reveals that the policies adopted by both regular GPs and out-of-hour GPs need to be improved. Patients should not have to wait two weeks before getting a consultation, and they should definitely not feel unsafe in the presence of an out-of-hour GP.