General Practitioners

(asked on 16th July 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that the facilities to book GP appointments (a) by telephone, (b) online and(c) in-person are adequate to meet the increased demand for such appointments.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 21st July 2021

On 20 May, NHS England and NHS Improvement published an updated standard operating procedure for general practice in the context of COVID-19 restrictions easing. Practices must ensure they offer both face to face and remote appointments and that patients’ preferences for care are respected unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary. Practice receptions must be open so patients without access to online services are not disadvantaged. General practices have also been asked to ensure patients understand how to access general practitioner services by providing clear and up to date information on practice websites.

NHS England and NHS Improvement are working with a number of areas to test advanced telephony requirements and specifications, which will improve telephone capacity. NHS England and NHS Improvement intend to share learning from these areas to support practices across the country to improve telephony.

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