Mother catches out Blair over GPs

Tony Blair was left floundering on television after a woman told how patients are being barred from making advance GP appointments.

The Prime Minister was caught out when Diana Church revealed that surgeries are refusing to take bookings more than 48 hours ahead.

He looked amazed as other audience members shouted their agreement. Mr Blair described it as "absurd" and promised to investigate. The problem was highlighted by Mrs Church during a BBC Question Time special last night. She told how surgery managers are forcing patients to wait until the last minute to make an appointment so that the practice can hit a high-profile NHS waiting time target.

She told the Prime Minister: "You have to sit on the phone for three hours in the morning trying to get an appointment because you are not allowed to ask for the appointment before that, because by making it 48 hours beforehand they are missing the Government target. Mrs Church, who said she had been trying to get an appointment for her daughter, added: "The only way to get a doctor's appointment is to turn up outside at 8 o'clock in the morning."

Mr Blair was left open-mouthed by her complaint. He said: "That is news to me. The whole purpose of this was that people used not to be able to get an appointment within 48 hours. Obviously, it shouldn't work that way, because it would be absurd."

He said he was "sorry" for the experience of "one person".

But he was further embarrassed when other audience members said they had suffered similar experiences.

When the show's chairman, David Dimbleby, asked audience members to raise their hands if they had had the same experience, more than a third of the 150-strong group did so.

Mr Blair was forced to pledge an investigation, saying: "Well, OK, I will look into it."

After the programme went off air Mr Blair faced more hostility from the audience at the Theatre Royal, Stratford - with security guards on the brink of stepping in to calm one man determined to grill the Prime Minister further.

A section of the audience also chanted: "Tony Blair - liar." The Prime Minister spent a few moments trying to placate them before being whisked away through a side exit.

His treatment was in contrast to the warm reception given to Charles Kennedy. The Liberal Democrat leader gave what was seen as an assured performance and was frequently praised by audience members.

But Conservative leader Michael Howard was booed.

Opposition parties later accused Mr Blair of being out of touch about how NHS targets were affecting the way hospitals and GP surgeries are run.

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Paul Burstow said: "It is extraordinary that the Prime Minister does not know how his target for booking appointments is working on the ground."

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley, said: "Mr Blair is out of touch with what is going on in the NHS. It is his Government that set the targets which distorts the way GPs want to run their practice and constricts patient choice."

The NHS target is for all patients to be able to see their GP within 48 hours. Most doctors are hitting the target by offering patients the choice of turning up to "open surgeries" the following morning. They are seen on a first come, first served basis. However, good practices also give patients the option of booking a fixed time appointment with their own GP, usually within a week.