NHS England (NHSE) has announced that more than one million patients have used its digital GP registration service since its launch 18 months ago.
GP practices process approximately 6.8 million registrations per year, many of which are done through paper-heavy processes leading to unnecessary administrative burden.
The online service is designed to make GP registration easier for both patients and staff, and is now being offered by around a third of all GP practices in England.
Nearly half of all registrants using the digital service did so outside of regular GP practice opening hours, while approximately one in 15 accessed the service in a different language.
The recently published GP contract has asked all GP practices to offer the digital service by October 2024.
“We continue to see a steady increase in the number of GP practices coming on board, which is helping them to save both time and money,” said Dr Amanda Doyle, the national primary care director at NHSE.
She added: “By recently integrating the service with the NHS App, we hope even more GP practices will take advantage of this new digital tool.”
Any GP practices offering the digital service will receive a complimentary paper form with the standardised questions as the online tool to ensure appropriate access for those who may not want to register online. The digital service is freely available to all GP practices in England.
“The Register with a GP surgery service is straightforward for practices to use, with no formal training required,” explained Nicola Davies, director at the Institute of General Practice Management.
“It fits in around our existing processes to welcome a new patient to our practice, for example arranging medication reviews for new patients with repeat prescriptions.”
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