PATIENTS need more help navigating the “maze” of NHS services, health leaders warned yesterday, as a new report dubs the system “confusing, frustrating and demoralising.”

The Royal College of GPs (RCGP) and the Patients Association have called on the government to make the NHS “simpler to access,” warning patients face rushed appointments, long waits, lost referrals and “unmanageable administerial burdens.”

Their report, publicly released today, states: “Patients and GPs are often struggling with the same challenges as they try to navigate an increasingly complex system.

“Accessing the NHS often feels like a maze of dead ends and detours.”

Patients told the organisations they often felt “left in the dark, not knowing how their referral was progressing or if it had been made at all.”

There are currently 6.17 million patients on the NHS waiting list for specialist care.

RCGP chairwoman Professor Victoria Tzortziou Brown said: “General practice is the front door to the NHS and what a lot of patients told us through this campaign is that it feels like they are opening the front door to a maze.”

She added that patients can feel care is “fragmented” and GPs are “stuck in that same uncertainty too.”

GPs spend between 15 to 30 per cent of their time following up on referrals and administrative processes instead of seeing patients, she said.

The campaign calls for patients to be able to track specialist referrals and for more user-friendly systems.

Prof Tzortziou Brown said the suggestions were “not necessarily radical” and “don’t require a huge reorganisation” but could make a “significant difference.”

Patients Association chief executive Rachel Power said: “Patients have told us clearly what they need. Appointments when they need them, enough time to explain what’s wrong, and for those with complex conditions, not having to repeat their entire history every visit.

“They want to be able to track their referrals instead of being left in the dark.

“They want to be equal partners in designing the services they rely on.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said it is “fixing the front door to the NHS and our priority is to ensure general practice is properly resourced.”

“We’ve recruited over 2,000 GPs in the last year alone, given primary care a £1.1 billion funding boost and rolled out online booking requests,” they added.