From today, each GP practice in England will offer online ones to meet during the day.
This step, ordered by the government, is aimed at reducing the so -called “8 in the morning” in order to convey to practice by phone, but contradicts the British Medical Association.
The operations will have to provide the service from 08:00 to 18:30 from Monday to Friday.
Along with the request of the PERFORE APPLICATIONS, patients will also be able to ask questions, describe the symptoms and request a call back.
Nevertheless, dozens of patients contacted your voice, your BBC news, and many say that they are struggling to gain access to online booking, despite the changes.
One of them, a 54 -year -old Kit, said: “He called my local doctors to find out about the ability to make online boning for appointment only in order to inform the administrator that she does not know about it at all, and they still do the lottery at 8 in the morning.”
And Joe, 53 years old, added: “My operation on general practitioners has the opportunity to book online, but there is never any accessibility.”
Meanwhile, BMA warned that patients with risk can be caused by harm and serious cases missed, forcing the move.
The Union of Doctors said that there would be a “potential tsunami online boarding”, which could overload the practices. He urged it more to provide guarantees, such as the resolution of the GP practice, temporarily disconnecting the online boning mechanism if employees tried to cope with the number of patients.
On Wednesday, BMA announced that she officially passes into the dispute about the system, paving the path to protest. This may include a working ordering with a limitation of the number of GPS patients will agree to see.
But ministers claim that they have provided financial support enough to allow the practice of GP to introduce the system.
Many practices already offer this option for many years – although some of them turn it off during the periods of employees.
Currently, about 6 million meetings per month are booked on the Internet – about every fifth of the total.
Care Minister Stephen Kinnok said: “We promised to engage in fights at 8 in the morning and facilitate the patients with access to their practice of general practitioners – and this is exactly what we deliver.
“We give our analog medical service in the digital era, providing patients with a greater choice and convenience. We learned from GPS, which already offer this service and reap a reward. ”
This is the second large digital ad this week after Prime Minister -Rinter announced NHS plans online – Virtual hospital service – at the conference of the Labor Party on Tuesday.
Digital innovation was one of the main topics of the 10-year NHS plan presented over the summer.
The government said that it invested an additional 1.1 billion pounds in support of this step.
The government claimed that online caring of general practitioners will help to release telephone lines for those who need to urgently get to the doctor, as well as remove pressure on the A&E units. Studies show that when patients are trying their best to get to their general practitioner by phone, they are more likely to turn to a & E.
Currently, a little more than half of the patients report that it is easy to go by phone by phone according to the study of patients with GP from NHS England.
The government said that the change was agreed with BMA back in April as part of the reforms that the government carried out in the GP agreement.
D -r Amanda Doyle from NHS England said: “This step will help upgrade the general practice by making an online access, as simpler as a call for your practice, ensuring the availability of telephone lines for those who need it most, and facilitates the practice of sorting patients based on clinical needs.”
And Jacob Lant, Executive Director of National Voters for Patients, said: “Online reservation systems is a fundamental construction block of the NHS of the 21st century, but so far the implementation has been disappointing.
“The best GP practices showed that it is possible. It is true that primary medical care is under tremendous pressure, but the response to the management of demand should be in more efficient use of these digital systems. ”
Practices are also now obliged to publish on their websites a new charter of the patient, called “You and your doctor” – informing patients that they can expect from their practice and how to cause feedback or identify fears.
