Estimated number of appointments attended at general practices by appointment category, area and month
See what variables and values are shown in your table
| Variable | Visibility | Selected values | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data description | Shown in table | All 2 values | Change values |
| Area | Shown in table | All 71 values | Change values |
| Appointment Category | Shown in table | All 15 values | Change values |
| Date | Shown in table | All 54 values | Change values |
Table
Standard shorthand is used in this table: [r] = revised.
| Data values | Data description | Area | Appointment Category | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 952,497 | Number of appointments | Wales | Face to face | December 2025-26 |
| 1,012,175 | Number of appointments | Wales | Face to face | November 2025-26 |
| 1,343,224 | Number of appointments | Wales | Face to face | October 2025-26 |
| 1,024,209 [r] | Number of appointments | Wales | Face to face | September 2025-26 |
| 874,788 [r] | Number of appointments | Wales | Face to face | August 2025-26 |
| 1,036,570 [r] | Number of appointments | Wales | Face to face | July 2025-26 |
| 981,485 [r] | Number of appointments | Wales | Face to face | June 2025-26 |
| 948,422 [r] | Number of appointments | Wales | Face to face | May 2025-26 |
| 973,921 [r] | Number of appointments | Wales | Face to face | April 2025-26 |
| 1,014,635 [r] | Number of appointments | Wales | Face to face | March 2024-25 |
| 12,250,020 [r] | Number of appointments | Wales | Face to face | 2024-25 |
| 952,964 [r] | Number of appointments | Wales | Face to face | February 2024-25 |
| 1,065,016 [r] | Number of appointments | Wales | Face to face | January 2024-25 |
| 933,593 | Number of appointments | Wales | Face to face | December 2024-25 |
| 1,057,311 | Number of appointments | Wales | Face to face | November 2024-25 |
| 1,374,799 | Number of appointments | Wales | Face to face | October 2024-25 |
| 970,238 | Number of appointments | Wales | Face to face | September 2024-25 |
| 894,108 | Number of appointments | Wales | Face to face | August 2024-25 |
| 1,021,117 | Number of appointments | Wales | Face to face | July 2024-25 |
| 919,690 | Number of appointments | Wales | Face to face | June 2024-25 |
| 993,498 | Number of appointments | Wales | Face to face | May 2024-25 |
| 1,053,051 | Number of appointments | Wales | Face to face | April 2024-25 |
| 966,881 | Number of appointments | Wales | Face to face | March 2023-24 |
| 11,970,376 | Number of appointments | Wales | Face to face | 2023-24 |
| 1,008,158 | Number of appointments | Wales | Face to face | February 2023-24 |
Next update expected:March 2026
Updates
- 26th March 2026
Metadata amended
- 26th March 2026
New data added
- 16th December 2025
- Dataset first published.
Main information
- Designation
- Official statistics in development
- Data provider
- Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW)
- Data source
- Primary Care Information Portal (PCIP)
- Time period covered
- October 2021 to December 2025
Overview
- Summary of dataset and variables
This shows the monthly estimated number of attended appointments by appointment category (mode of consultation, type of practitioner and reason for appointment), measure (number of attended appointments or average number of attended appointments per working day) and area (health board and cluster).
- Data collection or calculation
The term ‘appointment’ refers to all patient-related activities recorded in a general practice’s appointment book. The large majority of activities recorded will be traditional appointments where a patient has a consultation with a GP, nurse or other health professional. The term will also capture some other activities which staff perform for patients, but without having a consultation (such as a medicine review) if it’s recorded in the appointment book. It will not capture any patient related activities which are not recorded in the appointment book.
As part of the activity data quality improvement project of the Quality Assurance and Improvement Framework (QAIF) for 2021-22, practices were requested to categorise appointments by mode, type of practitioner and reason for consultation using the Primary Care Information Portal. It became a requirement for practices to undertake this exercise for data from July 2022 onwards.
Face-to-face appointments are those where a patient physically attends the practice. Remote appointments are those conducted over the telephone or through video call. Home visit appointments will include appointments where practice staff visit the patient’s residence which includes communal living establishments such as nursing homes.
GP and independent prescriber appointments should capture appointments with all GP types including GP registrars, as well as appointments with staff such as advanced nurse practitioners, pharmacists and physiotherapists who are qualified to prescribe as defined by NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership.
Nurse, allied health professional, or other clinical role appointments should capture appointments with clinical staff who are registered with a professional body (for example, nurses registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council) but who are not qualified to prescribe. It should not count interactions with administrative or non-clinical support staff.
Appointments that are classified by their reason as chronic, planned, or non-acute conditions are typically those for pre-existing conditions which have been ongoing for a longer period of time and are undergoing chronic disease management; while urgent or acute conditions are typically those which have occurred over the short-term. A patient’s reason for an appointment may be complex and staff recording this information should use their best judgement when categorising the reason for appointment. Typically this would be done by an administrative member of staff for clinical reasons and be subject to change, following advice from the health professional providing the appointment or practice manager.
- Statistical quality
The data submitted to the Primary Care Information Portal (PCIP) is not routinely revised, but practices are able to retrospectively re-categorise appointment data for mode of consultation, type of consultation and reason for appointment at any time. There is no restriction on how far back practices can revise data and any revised data would be included onto the PCIP the following day.
It is planned that Welsh Government statisticians will process the previous 12 months data with every quarterly statistical publication. This means that data published for the previous 12 months may be revised. Any large revisions will be highlighted in the statistical release and data tables.
Published data, from time periods longer than 12 months before the reference period will not be revised unless an error is discovered. If this does occur the revision will also be highlighted in the statistical release and data tables.
There is an ongoing programme to roll-out a single appointment system to all practices in Wales, that is planned for completion by summer 2026. This means that some practices have transitioned systems around the data reference dates, which may lead to additional data quality issues. Where data quality issues are identified, they are shared with Digital Health and Care Wales who work with health boards and practices to improve data quality. The statistics for the most recent quarter are based on the data as initially recorded. Erroneous data are usually edited in the source data after publication and statistics are then revised in the subsequent quarter’s publication.
Data for January to September 2025 have been revised in line with our planned revisions policy. There were small changes at Wales level with changes ranging between 0.1% and 2.7% for appointments data.
The data for April to December 2025 will be revised in the next publication.
- Related reports
Published by
- Organisation
- Welsh Government
- Contact email
- stats.healthinfo@gov.wales