A Government minister has said that GPs in England will be expected to ensure patients can contact their surgeries through electronic communications during core hours.
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting declared the intention as part of a package of measures aimed at cutting red tape and enabling GPs to spend more time with patients.
This has also come with an extra £889 million on top of the existing budget for general practice in the NHS.
The plan for electronic communications is one of those in a new GP contract for 2025-26 that is currently out for consultation with the British Medical Association’s General Practice Committee,
It reflects the Government’s emphasis on shifting more care communications from analogue to digital, and would require practices to enable patients to use digital channels, as well as the telephone and in-person, to set up an appointment or speak with a doctor.
A top issue
Louise Ansari, chief executive of monitoring body Healthwatch England said: “Struggling to make a GP appointment is one of the top issues people share with Healthwatch. So people will welcome this focus on strengthening support to GP teams, so they can get the local advice, treatment, prescriptions and referrals they need.
“As the NHS embarks on long term reforms, its vital that short term changes give people more choices over their care, more time to discuss their symptoms and lives in a safe space, and personalised support which works for them and their families.”
Since April 2019, GPs’ contract with NHS England has required them to offer a significant proportion of their appointments for direct online booking and to actively promote the option to their patients. But this was disrupted at many practices by the Covid-19 pandemic, and the 2022-23 contract included a more targeted requirement that all appointments not requiring triage could be booked online.
There have also been reports that some GP surgeries do not now make it possible to book appointments online. Meanwhile, the issue of the ‘8.00 am rush’ to book an appointment by phone has become an ongoing problem in many practices.
Other proposals
Streeting’s announcement also included proposals to abolish outdated performance targets, reduce bureaucracy, provide financial incentives to reward GPs who “go above and beyond” to prevent common killer conditions, and ensure doctors will benefit if they ensure as many patients as possible with high blood pressure are identified and treated before they end up in hospital.
The funding is also expected to support the hiring of an extra 1,000 GPs into the NHS.
Streeting said: “We promised to bring back the family doctor, but we want to be judged by results - not promises. That’s why we will incentivise GPs to ensure more and more patients see the same doctor at each appointment.
“Through our Plan for Change, we are acting to fix the front door to the NHS and we have already started hiring an extra 1,000 GPs into the NHS.”
