The Government hopes changes help address the ‘8am scramble’ for phone appointments
GP surgeries will be compelled to offer online appointment bookings.(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
GP surgeries will have to follow new rules in an effort to make it easier for patients to book appointments.
Practices must ensure websites and apps are kept available for people to make online bookings during the day, Monday to Friday.
It follows complaints too many surgeries weren’t allowing patients to book slots online, resulting in a rush to get through over the phone.
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The Government hopes the change will help address the so-called 8am phone scramble for appointments.
Getting through to doctor’s surgeries and booking appointments are among residents’ biggest bugbears.
And the latest announcement comes after patients were asked to rate the performance of their local surgeries in the national GP Patient Survey.
We previously reported on the ‘worst’ practices in the eyes of locals, which can be seen here.
At the other end of the scale are the GP surgeries which perform best and leave the vast majority of patients satisfied.
These are listed below. Hampton Surgery in Hampton in Arden received the best ratings from patients.
But there were also impressive scores in the cities, with Wolverhampton’s Newbridge Surgery and Woodland Road Surgery in Northfield posting almost perfect results.
‘Best’ GP surgeries in the West Midlands, according to patients
- Hampton Surgery, Hampton in Arden – 98% of patients rated as good overall
- Newbridge Surgery, Wolverhampton – 97%
- Woodland Road Surgery, Northfield – 97%
- The Sheldon Medical Centre – 97%
- The Ridgeway Surgery, Sedgley – 96%
- Penn Surgery, Wolverhampton – 96%
- Bloxwich Medical Practice – 96%
- Dr Kulshrestha Family Practice, Winson Green – 96%
- Stourside Medical Practice, Halesowen – 94%
- Kingsbury Road Medical Centre, Erdington – 94%
- Weather Oak Medical Centre, Sparkhill – 94%
Patients were quizzed in a range of areas, and asked to provide an overall rating of very good, fairly good, fairly poor or very poor.
While online appointments are available in some areas, the Department of Health and Social Care says it can be a postcode lottery, with some surgeries switching off online services during certain periods.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “Many GPs already offer this service because they’ve changed with the times.
“Why shouldn’t be booking a GP appointment be as easy as booking a delivery, a taxi, or a takeaway?
“And our policy comes alongside a billion pounds of extra funding for general practice and 2,000 extra GPs.”