Phone and online GP appointments becoming more common after NHS instructed families doctors to offer patients face-to-face appointments if they want them
A third of GP appointments are being carried out either over the phone or online, which is the highest proportion since the pandemic.
Latest monthly NHS data shows 33.3% of appointments in England in June were not face to face. The figure is up from 30.9% a year earlier in June 2024, and 28.3% in June 2023. Most appointments which are not in person involve a phone call but an increasing number of being conducted via video call online. It comes after NHS data showed GP practices have carried out seven million more appointments in the last year.
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Caroline Abrahams, Age UK Charity Director, said: “Age UK continues to hear from older people who are struggling and failing to access their GP, primarily because they find it impossible to navigate their surgery’s online or telephone based contact mechanisms. Face-to-face GP appointments often only become available once a patient has been processed through a telephone or internet based system of triage.
“The risk for some older people, especially if they are offline or have hearing or cognitive impairments, is that they never get as far as being offered the opportunity to see a doctor, because they fall at the first hurdle of getting into and through their surgery’s initial triage processes.
“It’s crucial that we ensure that triage systems in GP practices do not inadvertently become impenetrable barriers for some older people who want and need to see a doctor.”
NHS England ordered GP practices to give patients a face to face appointment if they want one. Increasingly though this will mean a patient needing to have a remote appointment first before being called in in person.
Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chair of the Royal College of GPs (RCGP), said: “Remote consultations, whether delivered over the phone or via video, can offer convenience and flexibility that many patients value, and evidence has shown that in the vast majority of cases, remote care is safe.
“Often a GP might initially consult with a patient remotely and then ask them to come into the practice if it’s necessary to see them in person. However, we also know that many patients prefer to access their care in-person, and this is how the majority of appointments are still delivered.”
Four in 10 appointments were carried out by phone or online during the pandemic but this had dropped to 27.7% in January 2023. In the past two years the figure has risen driven by an increase in consultations taking place online. These include those carried out using live chat tools or non-video apps, as well as video-based calls.
These accounted for only 1.5% of all GP appointments in June 2023 but had jumped to 4.9% by June 2024 and 8.0% in June this year. This has helped push up the combined figure for phone and online appointments to its current post-pandemic high of 33.3%. The figure just for telephone appointments has remained broadly unchanged over this period, at about 25%.
An NHS England spokesperson said: “Every GP practice must offer face-to-face appointments where patients want or need them, and many patients choose remote appointments where it is clinically appropriate and more convenient for them. GP teams are working hard to offer better access for patients, with a record number of appointments being carried out in the last year and recent findings showing the number of patients who are satisfied with their practice has improved.”
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “This Government is also clear that patients should have access to health and care when they need it and people who prefer a face-to-face appointment should have one, so we are transforming the NHS app to make managing your healthcare online easy and flexible.
“We’ve made real progress fixing the front door of the NHS, recruiting more than 2,000 GPs in the last year and delivering an additional 7 million GP appointments to improve access for patients.
“Through our 10 Year Health Plan we are delivering Neighbourhood Health Services that deliver more personalised, proactive care in local areas where it is more convenient for patients.”