Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to encourage uptake by GP surgeries of online access systems for patients.

Over the past four years, general practitioner (GP) practices have participated in workshops and seminars to help them implement online services safely and confidently. Support materials for GP practices have been made available on NHS England’s website including clinical guidance developed by the Royal College of General Practitioners.

NHS England has worked with partners – including the National Association of Patient Participation, other independent sector organisations and patient participation groups, and local interest groups - to raise public awareness of patient online services. Several clinical commissioning groups have run public promotion campaigns.

Almost 14.3 million people (24.6%) of the patient population are now using GP online services to access health care via their GP practice to book appointments, order repeat prescriptions, and see their medical records and test results.