Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance his Department issues to general practice staff on triaging (a) online consultation submissions and (b) reports of life-threatening symptoms shortly before the online tool closes each day.

The Department updates the General Medical Services and Personal Medical Services regulations that govern general practice. NHS England issues contractual variations and provides supplementary resources to support practices in implementing these changes.

The change to online access requirements was deferred by six months to 1 October 2025 so practices could prepare and get support for this transition if needed. Practices were encouraged to consider what changes they have needed to implement to ensure they were ready to meet this requirement from 1 October 2025. This approach was intended to facilitate a smooth transition and minimise any disruption to patient care. Practices are permitted to display guidance on their websites and premises that states patient should not submit an online consultation request if their issue is urgent and should instead call the practice or attend in person.

There is a range of support on offer for practices including guidance, joint webinars from NHS Confederation and NHS England to showcase best practice and case studies where this is working well.