A Reading GP surgery will not be offering routine appointments due to an ‘unprecedented’ surge in demand.

Receptionists at Tilehurst Surgery, in Tylers Rest, are taking almost 900 calls a day - a 40 per cent increase in the last two weeks.

To allow staff to provide urgent same-day appointments to people who are seriously unwell, the surgery will not take other new bookings until October 7.

“Whilst we may normally expect an increase in call volumes at this time of year as the schools go back, this huge increase in demand is unprecedented," read a statement by Tilehurst Surgery Partnership on its website.

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“We are already working at greater levels of demand than pre-Covid so this jump in demand has put our services under severe strain.”

The statement continued: “This is obviously not the service we want to be providing but we want to assure you we are working hard to reduce the impact of the surge in demand on our patient services.”

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The surgery have implemented a ‘queue buster’ feature on their phone system whereby a caller can hang up whilst maintaining their place in the queue and the system will call them back.

“Our wonderful reception team are working flat out to answer your calls so please be patient with them,” the surgery’s online statement read.