Higher proportion now contacting GPs in England online, figures show

A higher proportion of people in England are now contacting their GP surgery online than by phone, according to new data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Data covering three weeks from mid-September suggest just over 43% of people went online to contact their GP – an increase of a percentage point from the previous month – compared with 41% percent on the phone.

It comes after all NHS practices were required by the government to provide web bookings from October. The government says more than eight million people used online consultation services in October, up by a fifth from the previous month.

The British Medical Association has suggested the move risks seeing surgeries overwhelmed by demand and says patients could be put at risk.

It is in a formal dispute with the government over the changes.

But Health Secretary Wes Streeting has heralded the latest figures as “a massive step” towards meeting the government promise to end the “8am scramble for appointments”.

Data from the ONS showed 43.3% of people contacted their GP online, including via the NHS app or their local GP’s website, between 16 September and 9 October.

The government has mandated that online appointment bookings must operate between 08:30 to 18:00, Monday to Friday.

The Department of Health says nearly all GP practices in England now offer the service. Alongside requesting non-urgent consultations, patients are able to ask questions and describe symptoms and request a call back.

NHS England said contacting GPs online is now easier for patients and that the figures reveal its popularity.

But the BMA says patients are being put at risk because urgent requests are not being triaged and practices are overwhelmed.

“The government has merely increased the potential for patient safety issues to arise,” said Dr David Wrigley, the deputy chair of the BMA’s General Practice Committee for England.

“The software simply does not filter out routine from urgent requests,” he added.

Patients’ group Healthwatch England also raised concerns, saying some people have not been adequately informed about the changes, in particular that online booking is not to be used for emergencies.

They also reported practices restricting online bookings to mornings and said that less digitally literate people find the system hard to navigate.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Streeting said it was “about time the NHS caught up with the rest of the 21st Century”.

“GPs have really embraced this. You would think from listening to some of the moaning minnies in the BMA that GPs have been resistant, they’re not doing this.

“Actually the overwhelming majority have and I’m thankful to them,” he said.

On concerns raised about the challenges of assessing the increased number of messages facilitated by online systems, he suggested an acceptance of “bottlenecks” in the phone system indicates an attitude that “if patients are out of sight, they are out of mind”.

Jess Harvey, a GP in Shropshire and a member of the BMA, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that surgeries were already “saturated and working at full capacity”.

She said GPs want to be responsive to patients but that now there is an “open floodgate for people to contact us” and “there is also a reality here that we have to work safely”.

She accused the government of having “created unrealistic expectations for patients”, adding: “If they want us to do this extra work, it has to be funded for it to be done safely.”