The Stress And The Heartbreaking Missed Chances That England's GP Appointment Crisis Has Wrought Was Laid Bare Today By Brave Members Of The Public

The stress and the heartbreaking missed chances that England's GP appointment crisis has wrought was laid bare today by brave members of the public. 

Dozens of Brits have shared shocking stories with MailOnline of how a lack of face-to-face appointments, or being trapped in the endless labyrinth of phone calls and online forms, has damaged their health.

One cancer-stricken woman claims her diagnosis was missed and that oncologists told her she 'would have died' had she not gone private. 

Another said her desperate and repeated attempts to get an appointment during a mental health crisis had left her so tramautised she will never ring them again.  

Here, MailOnline shares their horrifying stories.

Maria Christoforou: I would have died waiting for a face-to-face appointment 

Maria Christoforou, of Pinner in Middlesex, told this website about her 'horrendous' experience with her GP.

She was extremely ill with an, at the time, unknown respiratory problem.

Ms Christoforou said she repeatedly contacted her GP for help, wanting to be seen face-to-face.

But she kept getting pushed back. 

'I was extremely ill and kept on calling the GP but she refused to see me face to face, she kept on telling me I had a chest infection and prescribed antibiotics over the phone,' she said.

She claimed to have contacted her practice three times over the course of a month requesting to be seen in-person, but each time the GP just prescribed a different type of antibiotic to treat her supposed infection. 

On the fourth occasion, Ms Christoforou said she was so ill, the GP finally agreed to see her.  

Her GP then tried to do a pulse oximetry test, which shines a light through the skin of the finger to detect the quantity of oxygen in the blood.

But Ms Christoforou said it was unsuccessful, and claimed the doctor told her to warm up her hands so they could get a reading.