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We’ve all dealt with the frustration of trying to contact a GP first thing in the morning and not being able to get through.
Now surgery phones across England are being freed up in a major step to end the 8am scramble.
New measures introduced by NHS England on 1 October mean that surgeries are now required to keep their online services open from 8am-6.30pm from Monday to Friday making it easier for patients to book appointments and ask for medical advice.
While some surgeries were already offering online access throughout the day, it was not consistent. Many practices turned online requests off when they reached a certain number, while others only made it available for a few hours during the day before cutting it off.
By making it more convenient for patients to go online when it suits them, the intention is that it will be easier for people to get through on the phone if they need to. And that could be helpful for patients who don’t have online access – or prefer to phone.
Dr Nikita Kanani is a GP at a practice in Lewisham, south-east London, which has been offering patients online services all day for the past year.
“It means everyone can log in at any point during the day to ask for an appointment, for advice and, most importantly, to describe their symptoms,” she explains, saying that it has worked well for them.
“What happens next is that those symptoms go to the practice and a team will triage them [assess them for urgency]. In some cases, patients will be offered an appointment on the same day, urgent cases will certainly be prioritised.
“Some will be sorted out without a face-to-face. It means appointments can be offered out more fairly to patients throughout the day and to the right person who needs to see them.”
Dr Kanani offers advice on how to fill in the online form to ensure you get the correct assessment. She says:
There are, of course, people who either don’t have digital access or are not confident about filling in forms online. In those cases, you can still telephone your surgery or go in to the practice.
“The telephone options are still there, the walk in options are still there,” says Dr Kanani. “This online option will work really well for some people, but as we know it won’t work for everyone. If you normally contact your practice by telephone or walking in, you can still do that, if that is the best way to get the care you need.”
There have been concerns from the doctors’ union, the British Medical Association (BMA), about patient safety, saying that the online system can’t distinguish between what is urgent and non-urgent. Dr Kanani said it was key to ensure that medics are available to assess what patients are telling them.
“It is not a silver bullet,” she says. “It is not going to fix some of the wider challenges that general practices are going through, so there need to be enough clinicians and staff to respond otherwise people will still be queueing.”
Louise Ansari, chief executive of independent watchdog Healthwatch England, has welcomed the move. “Patients often tell us how frustrating they find the early-morning scramble for on-the-day GP appointments,” she says.
“Many people are stuck in long phone queues, only to be told all the appointment slots have gone. People also tell us that online booking systems can be unpredictable – switched on and off at different times during the day with little notice.
“Giving people the ability to contact their GP using the booking method that most suits them, at any time during their surgery's core hours, is a welcome shift.”
This only applies to doctors’ surgeries in England.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved health services and there has been no confirmation that they will be taking the same steps. This means you will need to continue following the existing procedures for contacting your local GP surgery.
Also available is the NHS app. This is also different between countries. In England the smartphone app will become the default way that the NHS communicates with patients – replacing traditional doctors’ letters, phone calls and texts. The use of the NHS app is also increasing in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Read our guide to the NHS app around the UK.
Health insurance for people over 50 that provides a quicker route to diagnosis and planned medical treatment in a private facility.
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