Greater than half of GP practices say that adjustments to on-line entry had an opposed impression on affected person care and workers, in keeping with a British Medical Affiliation (BMA) survey.
Adjustments to the GP contract, which got here into impact on 1 October 2025, require GP practices to preserve their on-line session instruments operating all through core hours, permitting sufferers to request appointments, ask questions and describe signs.
Nevertheless the BMA has known as for safeguards to be carried out to forestall GP practices being overwhelmed, reminiscent of discovering IT options that work for sufferers and practitioners, permitting practices to flexibility droop on-line triage and rising follow assets to handle on-line requests past the top of core hours.
A BMA survey, responded to by greater than 1,300 GP practices, discovered that 55% of respondents had seen a detrimental impact on affected person care because the adjustments, whereas 74% stated they’d seen a rise in workload, 68% reported a rise in stress, and 54% stated there was a rise in working hours.
Additionally, 73% of practices stated that they’ve needed to change their methods of working and 42% of practices have lowered face-to-face appointments, with 45% redeploying workers to accommodate the adjustments.
Dr Katie Bramall, BMA GP committee chair, stated: “If the federal government had chosen to hearken to us and work with us, we may have made this a lot extra of successful.
“There may be nonetheless ample alternative for Wes Streeting to interact with us and assist rebuild common follow, which might remodel the NHS expertise for the 1.5 million sufferers who use it on daily basis.”
She added that GPs will “proceed to adjust to the adjustments beneath protest, while exploring all choices on how greatest to ship transformative and secure change for common follow in England”.
In response, the Division of Well being and Social Care (DHSC) informed Digital Well being Information that the survey solely represents a small minority of GP practices and isn’t reflective of the nationwide image.
A spokesperson for DHSC stated: “On-line reserving for GP appointments is a service sufferers need and rightly anticipate within the 21st century, and we’ve got labored collaboratively with the sector to efficiently roll this out at practices throughout the nation.
“These adjustments are giving sufferers sooner and extra handy entry to the care as we ship on our pledge to beat the 8am rush, with ONS knowledge exhibiting there are actually extra sufferers contacting their GP follow on-line than by cellphone.
“And in addition to supporting sufferers, we’re boosting common follow with an additional £1.1 billion, recruiting 2,500 extra GPs and chopping pink tape, in addition to launching a overview into the distribution of funding – inserting them on the coronary heart of our 10 yr well being plan.”
On the England Native Medical Committees convention in November 2025, a movement was handed for GPs to refuse on-line entry compliance, for on-line entry to be curtailed when secure working limits have been reached and to demand the elimination of the federal government mandate.
Digital Well being Information contacted NHS England for remark.
