Why is demand for appointments so high?

This is a national issue, and not just a local one.
We have an ageing population and a high proportion of our patients are elderly, frail and with multiple health conditions.
We have a high rate of patients not attending for appointments, in November 2023 alone, 84 GP appointments were wasted, this is over 300 hours of GP time.
Wait times for outpatient appointments and hospital care are lengthening, and patients often need to see their GP multiple times while waiting for an operation or outpatient appointment.
An audit of our appointments has found that a significantly high proportion of GP appointments are being used to discuss administrative queries or issues which would be better dealt with by an alternative service.
The Grove has seen our practice list size increase steadily over the last 3 years