The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said that, under new proposals, practices across England will be given £240 million to introduce online appointment booking tools and undertake an upgrade of phone systems to bring them into the 21st century.

“I want to make sure people receive the right support when they contact their general practice and bring an end to the 8am scramble for appointments,” said Health and Social Care Secretary, Steve Barclay.

“To do this we are improving technology and reducing bureaucracy, increasing staffing and changing the way primary care services are provided, which are all helping to deliver on the government’s promise to cut waiting lists.

“We are already making real progress with 10% more GP appointments happening every month compared to before the pandemic.”

Currently, an average-sized practice of 10,000 patients receives more than 100 calls in the first hour of opening every Monday, as people seek assistance with health issues that have developed or worsened over the weekend.

With advanced digital telephony, patients will receive a queue position, a call back option, and be provided with direct routing to the most appropriate professional — instead of hearing the engaged tone.

The modern phone system will also be integrated with clinical systems, so practice staff can quickly identify patients and their information from phone numbers.

Further, with the new online appointment booking and phone systems, patients can know on the same day how their query will be managed, rather than being told to call at another time.

“Where GPs have already moved over to these new technologies we see they free up the phones, making it much easier for people to get through to their general practice team,” commented Minister for Health, Neil O’Brien.

“As well as being more convenient for patients, these really easy to use digital tools allow a lot of patients to get the help they need without ever needing to go in for an appointment, which will help cut waiting lists.

“Investing £240 million in these modern tools and the help GPs need to move onto them will make things more convenient for patients, but also make the workload more manageable for general practice teams.”

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In addition to the technological upgrades, the government and NHS England are to expand the role of GP receptionists to become “care navigators,” as to better respond to patients’ needs and speed up the booking process.

Ministers believe successful care navigation can help direct 40% of requests more effectively, while speeding up appointments.