Good news about GPs in England (?)

Thanks for your replies. I was asking because I'm not always online so a good old fashioned phone call or SMS will get through a lot quicker for me!

I just want to share my experience of my GP because I think it is a brilliant example of how this could go really right.

We've had an online booking system for >4 years. It is open from 8am to 5pm and 8am to 12:30pm on Saturdays. You fill in a number of questions, which include 'is there a specific GP you've been seeing about this'. A GP looks at it and triages it same day. From there they decide whether it is urgent or routine, and whether you need to see a GP, a practice nurse, a nurse practitioner, a health care assistant or get a referral to a pharmacist or physio.  Unlike others, this does not close when they 'fill' their appointments because the appointments stretch into the next 4 weeks. 

They will then contact you on the day about which type of appointment you need, and then contact you with an online booking platform for it based on your urgency (14 day, 7 day, 21 day etc). If it is an urgent appointment they will call you (both my dad and brother have been called in for same day in person appointments). 

If you are someone who can't use online things and you ring, the receptionist fills in the form for you. This can happen at any point in the day. 

I've found it is extremely effective, as someone who really struggles with phone calls it has massively increased the ease with which I can contact my GP. The one time I needed an urgent appointment (bad reaction to new medication) I got a call back within hours. It has massively decreased the stress at the practice, especially as they can make sure someone sees the right professional every time.

I just think they've managed it really well.

I'm not convinced this is good news. I don't like more and more things being moved online, it always seems to make the service less personal 

Mine has the texting option.

There is a call option but it's not as reliable.

Mine has two options, if you select call they will call you, if you select text they will text you. 

My GP surgery later sends a text message in response, advising either of when a doctor will call me, or of the details for an in-person appointment, or with a unique, time-limited link to book in with the nurse. 

Unfortunately yes. We can send a request online for a callback for urgent things, but this is often closed about an hour later. For other appointments we call or line up at the surgery. The phone lines go up to 30 people then say over 30 and appointments released each day soon go. 

Just wondering, with the phone system they call you back to advise you or to ask you to come in. If you use the triage system online, do you have to keep checking your e-mails or an online account for a response, or do they still call you?

Thats what I was just thinking mp500. I don't use any digital means of contacting my GP's but there's at last one surgery that insists all repeat prescriptions are done on Myhealthonline, which dosent seem to work half the time judging by the queues of people freaking out about having no meds. The whole systems a mess, my GP's have had bookable appointments in the aternoons for ages, morning surgeries are all call on the day and mostly for urgent problems. Bookable appointments are a bit longer too, so that you have a chance for a proper consultation, you get to see the GP of your choice too. Morning appointments you get who's there and has space.

South Yorkshire.

I can't speak for every surgery in every part of South Yorkshire but the ones around here all offered online booking through "EMIS Access" and "SystmOnline" back in the early 2010s, albeit you had to register for it separately. There have also been some local initiatives like the "Rotherham Health App", which was supposed to be a kind of universal third party alternative to the former, but that has since been discontinued in favour of the national NHS app. 

n.b. I have no idea how well any of the above worked. I used to help a local elderly gent who seemed to get on fine with SystmOnline. Someone else I knew didn't have any luck with the "Rotherham Health App" after switching from EMIS Access - it didn't work and she kept getting passed back and forth between the surgery and the app company before giving up.

Its possible that some of the smaller surgeries were quite late to adopt online services, but the larger ones were quite early adopters.

Would be intrigued to hear which area you're in as most of the people I talk to do not have online booking at their GP surgeries.

Are there actually any surgeries that DON'T have online appointment booking yet? Certainly every NHS surgery around here has had it for years (well over a decade). Granted, I have never used it myself as it always seemed like too much faff.

Having extra capacity to enable seeing a regular doctor would be very helpful.

Interesting

I agree with what other say. Unless they are compelled to run the online apointment portal at reasonable hours it won't make a difrence.

Yes so true.

I'm in Scotland and my gp surgery offers a simlar system but its difficult getting the dr you want to reply-they do offer a text service though and this works best for me. Requesting appts is way more frustrating than it should be!

Agree, mine is similar but access opens at 0700.  This means I have to get up early so I am there refreshing the page so I can fill the form out as soon as possible - they've normally closed the form again like yours if you don't do it quickly enough. 

That sucks.

I'm also on an online system but ours is open throughout the working day and has a guarantee for a GP to look at the form same day to triage. 

I've found it to be extremely effective at providing the 'right type' of support, whether it be in person, phone call, a nurse or physio, and how soon you need to be seen, and I'm always contacted with which option they think should happen same day, and then get the ability to book appointments at least by next day. 

I think it's a system which if spread out more widely could be extremely effective. 

I should add that, whilst it might be good news, requesting appointments online can be almost as frustrating as the 8am phone rush.

My GP surgery switched to online-only requests some time ago. People who can't do it online can still phone in, and the receptionists complete the same form on their behalf.

Access to the form doesn't open until 8am, and it's usually withdrawn by around 8.10am, because they've reached capacity for processing them. So the "rush" has really just switched from phone to online.