Almost every UK GP now offers online access for patients
Patients at nearly all GP practices (98.7%) in England can now access their surgery online, thanks to government changes allowing patients to submit online consultation requests open during work hours (8 am – 6.30 pm).
A record eight million online requests were submitted by patients in October after the requirement was introduced. This was an increase of one fifth on the previous month, and an increase of two thirds on last year.
For the first time the ONS Health Insights Survey shows that of those who completed this survey, more contacted their GP practice online than by phone.
Online access is intended to free up GP phone lines across the country helping to end the 8am scramble and making it easier than ever for people to get in contact with their practice and get the care they need.
98.7% of GP practices confirmed that their online consultation tool is switched on for the duration of core hours as per the contract regulations for non-urgent requests. 5981 of 6207 (96.4%) GP practices responded.
Integrated Care Boards review compliance routinely, and the NHS continues to provide support for the minority of practices yet to fully implement online consultation.
Over the past 16 months, the government has invested an extra £1.1 billion into primary care, recruited an extra 2,500 GPs, and halved the number of targets GPs are held to so they spend less time box ticking and more time caring for patients. As a result, patient satisfaction with general practice has improved after a decade of decline.
Waiting lists have also fallen by over 230,000 since July 2024, the largest fall in over a decade and the NHS has delivered an extra 5.2million appointments in England. Alongside this, 312,000 fewer patients are waiting more than 18 weeks for treatment.
“In the 21st century, patients expect to be able to manage healthcare at their fingertips, and so they should. We organise so much of our lives online, there’s no reason the NHS should be any different,” said Health Secretary Wes Streeting.
“I want to thank GPs and their teams for rolling this out. Eight million patients used online access in October alone, taking advantage of the flexibility and convenience. These numbers show there was a huge appetite from patients and a can-do attitude from GPs. We promised to end the 8 am scramble, and this is a massive step towards that ambition.
“After more than a decade of decline, we are bringing our analogue NHS into the digital age.”
