Almost 5 million of the total 27.1 million GP appointments in October saw patients waiting 15 days or more to see a doctor or nurse, according to NHS Digital figures.
Nevertheless, as many as 40 percent of patients saw a doctor or a nurse on the day of their call, while another 6.6 percent were seen within 24 hours, the report said.
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The NHS has revealed these figures for the first time ever, increasing concern about labor shortage in the health care sector. In 2015, the UK government promised to bring in 5,000 more GPs in England by 2020, but numbers have actually fallen by 1,000 since then.
