![\"Dr.](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/3_Dr-Murugesan-Raja.jpg\")
‘From a GP\u2019s perspective it\u2019s a good thing because people know their request will get looked at, and they won\u2019t just be left having to ring at 8am tomorrow for another scramble’, says Dr Murugesan Raja<\/p>\nWe looked at the online services available at 10 Greater Manchester GPs a week after the Government pledged to solve the problem. Helena Vesty reports‘From a GP\u2019s perspective it\u2019s a good thing because people know their request will get looked at, and they won\u2019t just be left having to ring at 8am tomorrow for another scramble’, says Dr Murugesan Raja<\/p>\n
The 8am scramble for a GP\u2019s help is going to be a thing of the past, the government has declared.<\/p>\n
But some doctors have aired concerns that the move will actually mean less time for appointments.<\/p>\n
Others have claimed practices will simply refuse to make the changes mandated by politicians because of how they will stretch already scant resources.<\/p>\n
While some GPs say that if an illness is caught early through an online request, then opening practices up to higher demand is worthwhile.<\/p>\n
Last week, Care Minister Stephen Kinnock declared that, from October 1, all NHS GP surgeries in England are contractually obligated<\/a> to keep their online consultation tools open from 8am until 6.30pm between Monday and Friday.<\/p>\n Under the new system, patients will be able to request appointments, ask questions, and describe symptoms online throughout the day rather than calling their surgery or visiting in person.<\/p>\n Join the Manchester Evening News <\/strong>WhatsApp<\/strong> group <\/strong>HERE<\/a><\/p>\n The government promises that this will help free up practice phone lines for urgent requests and those who have no online access, and make it more convenient to get appointments.<\/p>\n The Covid-19<\/a> pandemic sped up the need for GPs to offer online services and, in Greater Manchester, every GP practice now already has some kind of online offer. But, like much of the rest of the practices in England that do have online services, how they work varies from practice to practice.<\/p>\n Some GPs turn online requests off when they reach a certain number, while others only have the online function available for a few hours a day.<\/p>\n On October 1, I looked at the online offering of 10 GP practices <\/a>in the different boroughs of Greater Manchester.<\/p>\n The results varied wildly as the announcement was made \u2013 with some senior GP sources telling the Manchester Evening News that they would not be enacting the government\u2019s new rule because of a lack of staff to deal with a rise in online requests.<\/p>\n A week later, on October 8 and 9, I checked back again.<\/p>\n Routine appointments and non-urgent requests are taken via the NHS<\/a> app for one GP in Hulme<\/a>, but were turned off all day with no opening or closing times advertised on October 1. It was the same again a week later.<\/p>\n But in Middleton<\/a>, one practice had non-urgent and routine appointments requests turned on all day online, again with no opening or closing times, or information on whether they get turned off depending on demand. This was also the same on October 8.<\/p>\n In Didsbury<\/a>, one practice offered same-day appointment request forms online between 7am and 10am on weekdays on October 1, and that was the same the following week.<\/p>\n Following the hyperlink to the form on the afternoon of October 8 also led to a second message saying a different form was available for non-urgent requests, between 10am and 6.30pm.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, at a Gatley surgery, medical request forms were available on weekdays between 8am and 2pm. On October 8, that policy remained on the website \u2013 and just before 2pm, the practice released a message saying it had \u2018reached capacity for medical queries and temporarily paused access to online enquiries\u2019.<\/p>\n It added that administrative and routine care requests were still available, and encouraged people to call the practice for anything urgent.<\/p>\n In Bury<\/a>, online services requests were available on AskmyGP until 2pm, if urgent. One practice advised that any requests made after 4pm may not get a same-day response. According to theor website, these rules were the same a week on.<\/p>\n Over at a surgery in Salford’s Boothstown, online request forms were able to be submitted between 8am and 6pm from October 1 for both urgent and routine appointments.<\/p>\n On the same day, in Cheadle<\/a> Hulme and Heaton Moor, two GPs offered online services from 8am to 6.30pm. Those practices used the nationally popular AccuRX to host their online services, which appeared to have updated many of its websites to advertise the government\u2019s mandated opening hours on the day of the announcement, the M.E.N. understands.<\/p>\n The same goes for Econsult, another online consultation website used by GPs widely across England. A GP practice in Bolton<\/a> using Econsult also offered online services from 8am to 6.30pm, specifying they should be used for non-urgent queries.<\/p>\n However, at another Stockport-based practice which used AccuRX, one patient reported that the practice advertises an 8-3pm timeframe to request urgent same day, next day, and routine appointments online. The guidance on the practice\u2019s website advised that online queries will be responded to in \u2018three working days\u2019.<\/p>\n The practice had closed off online appointments and urgent care requests by 9am on October 1. Just before 3pm on October 9, all these messages were the same, including appointments being closed off.<\/p>\n The message on the website read: \u201cWe have paused access to online requests and we have reached safe working capacity for the day.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite a week passing since the government\u2019s announcement, the online offering of this snapshot of Greater Manchester GP practices does not seem to have become any more uniform. Perhaps this is not surprising as there have been no extra resources.<\/p>\n Dr Valeed Ghafoor runs a 22,000-patient practice in Hyde<\/a>, as well as a business training some 200 practices across the country in efficiency improvements. Greater Manchester already has online services, but that\u2019s not the same elsewhere, he told the M.E.N.<\/p>\n \u201cNationally, I think this is a poor idea. From my experience and exposure, around 20-30 per cent of practices in this country still don\u2019t have any online provision.<\/p>\n \u201cIt will be difficult for staff to switch over to such a different way of working, but also for patients who have learned they have to contact the surgery early in the day.<\/p>\n \u201cPractices will have to staff their online tools late into the day, but will have fewer resources to deal with a morning rush that may still happen because patients are used to it.\u201d<\/p>\n The changes have come with a requirement that all online requests are triaged quickly.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you have to triage people straight away, you\u2019re going to have to have fewer appointments to free up someone to do that. There hasn\u2019t been any additional funding with this announcement to hire more staff,\u201d added the GP.<\/p>\n As the M.E.N. reported earlier this year, opening the floodgates to requests all the time runs the risk of clogging GP services even further, taking doctors\u2019 time away from those who really need it.<\/p>\n Bolton GP Dr Helen Wall spoke about opening up online consultations<\/a> and requests during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cAs we\u2019ve gone digital, we\u2019ve become more accessible. By trying to fix the very problem that we were struggling to cope with \u2013 demand \u2013 we\u2019ve increased it.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople contact us now for much more minor things than they would have done previously, because they can fill an online form in or they can do something digitally, reply to a text message.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had online consultations during Covid and people would send us an online medical form at 3am and say they had a sore toe. Then when you would call them at 11am, they’d say, \u2018well, it’s better now. I forgot I even sent that in.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that people can ring us, have an appointment while they\u2019re at work during the day means that they’ll just get one just in case. Whereas before, they might have not taken an afternoon off work unless it was something that was really serious, or really bothering them.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s Amazon Prime culture. You can, so you will.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Stephen](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0_Stephen-Kinnock-warned-over-the-consequences-of-a-disorderly-discharge-from-the-hotels-Victoria-Jo.jpeg\")
Care Minister Stephen Kinnock said: “We promised to tackle the 8am scramble and make it easier for patients to access their GP practice – and through our Plan for Change, that\u2019s exactly what we\u2019re delivering”(Image: PA Archive)<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0_Valeed-Profile_result.jpg\")
Dr Valeed Ghafoor(Image: Handout)<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/5_HVR_MEN_111021_helen_wall.jpg\")
Dr Helen Wall(Image: Dr Helen Wall)<\/p>\n![\"Dr](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/4_Dr-Murugesan-Rajajpg-S.jpg\")
Dr Murugesan Raja says if he can catch illnesses earlier through online requests, dealing with higher demand is worth it(Image: KBP)<\/p>\n