Online GP consultation requests rise to 6.5m a month

NHS England has announced that millions more people are using online consultation requests to contact their GP practice each month.

Figures show 6.5 million online consultation requests were submitted to GPs in September 2025, up by half compared to the same period last year at 4.4 million.

Since 1 October 2025, every GP practice in England has been required to keep its online consultation platform open during their working hours for non-urgent appointment requests, medication queries, and admin requests.

However, the British Medical Association (BMA) has called for the government to implement safeguards to prevent GP practices being overwhelmed by changes to online consultation access.

Wes Streeting, health secretary, said: “This data is crystal clear – more patients are seeking GP appointments online – even before the requirement came into place on 1 October.

“In the 21st century, patients expect the ease, convenience, and flexibility of managing their healthcare online.

“For too long, patients have been held hostage by our outdated, analogue system of the 8am scramble on phone lines, causing stress, difficulty, and long waits to get through and get appointments.

“Patients want this change and we’re delivering it – we’ve put in £1.1 billion extra funding, provided the support, and now it’s time for the few lagging practices to get on board, move with the times, and provide the service patients deserve.”

Recent figures from ONS found the most popular way for patients to contact GP practices was online – beating phone calls for the first time.    

Dr Amanda Doyle, national director for primary care and community services at NHSE, said: “We know how frustrating it is for patients and practices when people are unable to get through on the phone to their practice, particularly first thing in the morning.

“That’s why we’ve upgraded thousands of GP telephone systems and started to offer more modern options such as submitting their initial request online to fit around people’s busy lives – freeing up phone lines for the most urgent cases in the process.

“And we’re starting to see the positive impact this is having, with seven in 10 adults saying it was easy to get through to their practice, up from six in 10 in 2024.”

The BMA told Digital Health News that its GP committee for England has a survey out which will gather more information around how online consultations have affected practices and patient usage.

A BMA spokesperson said: “Online access doesn’t work for everyone and practices should be able to organise their resources in the way that best meets the needs of their patient population.

“As we’ve warned the increase to online consultations without the necessary safeguards risk practices being inundated with both non-urgent and urgent patient queries, leaving practices – regardless of size and the volume of queries they handle – to manage the fallout.

“We can only hope that no life-threatening issues are missed or delayed but it’s a very real and present danger when we are handling over a million appointments each day nationwide.

“We want to support the government’s ambition, but this can’t be at the expense of patient safety and GP practice staff wellbeing.”

Despite concerns raised by the BMA about the impact of keeping online consultations open during core hours, some GP practices have reported positive results.

Steel City General Practice in Sheffield turned on its online consultation system over two years ago to offer patients the choice of multiple access routes, walk in, telephone and online. 

Josie Matthews, practice business manager at Steel City, said: “It’s obliterated the 8am rush, having all this digital help, it’s fantastic.

“It’s helped get around the issue of people having to ring first thing in the morning to secure an appointment and then call back the next day if none were available.”