One million patients a week cannot get appointments with GPs, amid the longest waiting times on record, new figures show.

Doctors said they were working “flat out” but under “unsustainable” pressure, leaving “worrying” numbers of patients without any help.

The NHS figures show the number waiting at least a week to see their GP has risen by 56 per cent in five years, with one in five now waiting this long.

The pressures left 11.3 per cent of patients unable to get an appointment at all - a 27 per cent rise since 2012. This amounts to around 47 million occasions on which patients attempted but failed to secure help from their GP, forcing them to give up, try again later or turn to Accident & Emergency departments.

Rising numbers of patients struggled to even get through on the phone, with 27.8 per cent of those polled citing difficulties, compared with 18.5 per cent in 2012.

Patients’ groups last night said the situation was “frightening,” putting the vulnerable at grave risk of ending up in hospital for want of basic care.

The survey of more than 800,000 patients - which is held annually - found worsening access to family doctors across a range of measures.