A GP has claimed patients are wasting doctors appointments with ridiculous ailments after being influenced by people on social media. 

Dr Alka Patel, who has over 20 years’ experience as a General Practitioner, believes doctors are being bombarded with appointments from ‘time-wasting’ patients with an increased ‘health anxiety’.

The medical physician and lifestyle coach said people are not getting their medical information from ‘credible sources’, but from ‘social media influences’ instead. 

Appearing on Good Morning Britain today, Dr Patel claimed one in four patients who need care cannot get an appointment with a GP, while one in four patients are ‘misusing appointments’.

She therefore wants to ban patients from visiting clinics if they continue to hassle doctors with trivial illnesses and pointed to one example in which a mother was concerned ‘her son couldn’t stop walking backwards’. 

Appearing on GMB earlier this morning, Dr Patel said: ‘The issue I am now seeing is rising health anxiety and why is that – well look at social media. 

‘I have people who wake up with a spot on their finger, the first thing they have done is reach into their back pocket, found someone on social media saying OMG this is sepsis, your finger is going to fall off, this happened to me.

‘The information people are getting about whether to go and see their gp are not coming from credible sources, they are coming from the influences.

‘Right now we have a sick care service which parades itself as a healthcare service.

‘One in four patients who need the care cant get the appointment while one in four patients are misusing appointments.

‘People have come into my practice with bruises that haven’t gone down in a couple of days, and woman said her son couldn’t stop walking backwards.’

Speaking about a potential ban for people who waste GPs time, she added: ‘A ban is about protection, we are trying to protect a very fragile NHS.

‘We are trying to protect patients who need access to care the most, we are trying to protect the doctors who are burning out and leaving in their droves.

‘In one way there is no such thing as wasted time because everyone matters and everyone’s health anxiety matters.’ 

It comes as a poll by The Pulse magazine found 41 per cent of 660 practices are limiting patient contacts to 25 per GP a day, which comes after family doctors voted overwhelmingly for collective action in the summer.

The British Medical Association (BMA) issued a list of ten actions for surgeries to consider, including limiting patients seen each day or refusing to carry out work GPs are not formally contracted to do.

The Pulse survey suggests about 70 per cent of practices are taking some form of action, with 59 per cent reporting they have reduced services since the August 1 vote.

Some 11 per cent said they had made cuts before the result was announced on August 1. Another 7 per cent told the survey they would not take part in collective action.

The survey was told by 42 per cent of respondents they have stopped rationing referrals, investigations and admissions, while 13 per cent are still considering which actions recommended by the BMA to take.

Family doctors warned that collective action could last for months.

The figures come during a row over the new GP contract, which will give services a 1.9 per cent funding increase for 2024/25 – a move the BMA claims will leave many surgeries struggling financially.

GPs launched a formal dispute over the issue in April after a referendum carried out by the union found 99 per cent of 19,000 GPs rejected the contract.

They also raised concerns about the impact of the rise in employers national insurance contributions introduced in the autumn Budget.

Following Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s announcement last week, the Royal College of GPs (RCGP) said it has contacted Health Secretary Wes Streeting, seeking assurance that practices will be protected like ‘the rest of the NHS and public sector’.

Dr Steve Taylor, GP spokesperson for The Doctors’ Association UK, told Pulse: ‘With the current contract failing to cover costs and increase costs being brought in by the current Government in the form of National Insurance and staff costs, it is vital that the Government makes funding available now to ensure GPs can continue to provide the services they need to for patients.’

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: ‘The NHS is broken, and the Secretary of State has been clear he wants to work with doctors to get it back on its feet so it works for patients and staff.

‘We have taken tough decisions to fix the foundations so a £22billion boost for the NHS and social care could be announced at the Budget.

‘This Government is committed to recruiting over 1,000 newly qualified GPs by cutting red tape so patients can get the care they need and NHS England is working to address training delays to ensure the health service has enough staff for the future.’