NHS Direct may take over GP bookings

It could run bookings for GP practices and manage appointments out-of-hours alongside a broader online and telephone service.

Board papers for NHS Direct from January 31 show talks have been held with nine GP consortia and more are planned. So far, meetings or calls have been held with groups of GPs in Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, London, the North West, North East and South West.

There is a need to “develop stronger and more constructive relationships” with consortia, and meetings held so far have been “fairly positive”, the board papers say. Potential projects could include testing the new 111 telephone number for non-urgent services “to trialling in-hours triage and booking systems”.

NHS Direct is already booking GP out-of-hours appointments as part of West Yorkshire Urgent Care Service and through 111 services in East Midlands and Luton.

Dr Brian Gaffney, medical director of NHS Direct and a GP in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland, said NHS Direct was “not planning on taking over GP appointment booking”.

“Any service we develop would be in response to what local commissioners want. The main focus of our engagement with the emerging GP consortia is to discuss ways in which we could work together in the future.”

NHS Direct is also looking at providing “self-care” advice online, he said. “We can syndicate to other websites so, for example, these could sit on a practice website for their patients to self-assess and understand the intervention that is required e.g. self-care or GP appointment. We want to work with practices to refine our web services, so they are locally responsive and reflect the range of services available locally.”

A spokesman for the Department of Health said: “If GPs locally think 111 could be used to improve access to GP appointments – in addition to the urgent care function - then it could be tested as part of the local pilots.”