Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to take steps to enable all patients to book primary care appointments through the NHS app.

Currently, patients can book general practitioner (GP) appointments via the NHS App. Availability of GP appointments is dependent on practices making their appointments available online. Many practices use triage processes to make an initial assessment of patients’ needs, rather than making online appointments available with a GP on a ‘first come first served’ basis. Routine or planned appointments that do not require prior assessment, such as cervical screening, asthma reviews or regular B12 injections, are more likely to be made available in the NHS App.

Work is underway to understand how the NHS App can support patients, who have been triaged and assessed as needing an appointment, with the ability to find and book an appropriate appointment.