NHS England has launched a service that allows patients to register with a GP digitally.
More than 900 GP practices – around one in seven nationally (14%) – have enrolled in the online service, which is available through the NHS ‘Find a GP’ service and the NHS App. Over 240,000 online patients have registered with their GP practice online.
The new service, which verifies individuals’ identity via the NHS Login system, automatically checks if users live in the catchment area and sends their details to a GP, is helping to reduce paperwork and admin time. It is reportedly saving staff up to 15 minutes per registration.
The service is fully compatible with NHS Login - for which more than 30 million people have now registered - meaning patients can use one login to access a range of health and care services.
Stephen Koch, NHS England’s executive director of platforms, said: “This service reduces the administrative burden for general practice as well as making GP registration even more accessible to the public, offering patients more choice, convenience and consistency.
“We’re pleased to see a growing number of GP practices are coming on board, helping them save time and money. By recently integrating the service with the NHS App, we hope even more GP practices will take advantage of this new digital tool.”
Plans are underway to make the service compatible with a number of robotic process automation solutions, which will allow registration information to be automatically added into GP clinical systems. Full clinical system integration is also planned for next year.
Sam Birchall
