ALL NHS GP surgeries must offer online appointment booking from Wednesday.
Health chiefs have ordered practices to keep their website and app services available from at least 8am to 6:30pm from Monday to Friday.
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They said “phone lines across the country will be freed up” and it will take pressure off the 8am scramble to call the GP.
It is hoped patients will get help faster and avoid the stress of waiting on hold first thing.
Many surgeries are already tech-savvy but many are not, with services typically worse in working class areas.
Top priority
Dr Amanda Doyle, GP chief at NHS England, said: “Improving access to general practice is a top priority for the NHS.
“Requiring all practices to keep their online consultation tools open during core hours will help modernise general practice and ensure the phone lines are available for those who need them most.”
It is the latest update in Labour’s pledge to transform the NHS “from analogue to digital”.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced he would set up a nationwide “online hospital” by 2027 for patients to be treated and managed at home.
The scheme will deliver up to 8.5million extra NHS appointments in its first three years, Labour claimed.
The online hospital will be accessible through the NHS app and will allow patients to choose between the digital service and their local hospital.
Those who use the service will be able to access and track prescriptions, be referred for scans and tests, and receive clinical advice on managing their condition.
GP WAITS SECOND BIGGEST PUBLIC CONCERN
BRITS are more frustrated than ever with the NHS, with public satisfaction at a record low for a third year in a survey published in April.
A poll of 3,000 people by the Nuffield Trust think-tank found 59 per cent are unhappy with the health service.
Just 21 per cent of people were satisfied with the NHS overall, down from previous record lows of 24 per cent in 2024 and 29 per cent in 2023.
Satisfaction was lowest for A&E waiting times, at just 12 per cent, and GP waiting times, at 23 per cent.
Saffron Cordery, chief of NHS Providers, said: “These figures must be a wake-up call for the NHS.”
