The average wait for a routine GP appointment is longer than two weeks for the first time.
The delay to be seen for a non-urgent concern has risen from 12.8 days to 14.8 since 2017, a study of doctors reveals.
Just 20% of GPs said patients could get an appointment in less than a week and 27% waited one to two weeks.
But 31% reported an average period of two to three weeks –while the delay for 16% was three to four weeks.
A worrying 6% explained the average time was more than a month, a survey of 901 GPs by medical journal Pulse shows.
Full-time GPs numbers have fallen with experts saying 6,000 more are needed in England.
One GP, who recorded a four to five week wait, said: “Our list size continues to grow because there are so many housing developments.
“We are poorly remunerated and patient demand continues to soar despite dreadful government funding.”
Yet NHS England insisted that almost half of people who contacted their GP get an appointment on the same day or within 24 hours.
Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: “The concern is that non-serious conditions might deteriorate.”
Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, said: “After years of Tory cuts and falling GP numbers it’s shocking, but unsurprising, that patients are now waiting longer than two weeks on average to see a GP.
“Whether it’s for surgery, in bursting A&Es, for cancer treatment or now in general practice, patients are facing unacceptably long waits.
"The truth is, as Boris Johnson ’s senior adviser confirmed, the Tories simply don’t care about the NHS and can't be trusted with it.”
