New online registration process saves GP practices 15 minutes per patient

GP practices trialling a new online patient registration process are reporting an average time saving of 15 minutes per patient.

NHS England and NHS Digital teams have been working with 50 practices to modernise the process of registering with a GP practice, moving away from paper forms.

They have jointly developed the ‘Register with a GP surgery‘ online service, which they said has handled thousands of registrations.

An NHS England bulletin to GPs said: ‘Over 9,000 successful registrations have taken place to date and early testing has shown the service has reduced the application processing time by up to 15 minutes for practice staff, whilst offering patients more choice, convenience, and consistency in the way they register.’

They are now on the lookout for more GP practices who want to work with the team to ‘enhance the service further and fine tune additional features’, the bulletin added.

This would include ‘an improved paper form option to sit alongside the online service, and integration with clinical systems and other NHS digital services, such as the NHS App’.

The move to develop a national online registration system comes as part of the Government’s review into reducing unnecessary bureaucracy in general practice.

The review, carried out in 2020/21 had identified the patient registration process as a high volume and difficult task for practices and patients.

Yesterday, the Government published seven principles aimed at reducing unnecessary bureaucracy and administrative burdens in general practice, with input from the BMA and RCGP.

It said these were a ‘complementary piece of work’ to the bureaucracy review, and would act as a ‘concordat’ between Government departments and the profession.

They include guidance to co-design new processes with GPs; ensuring the most appropriate professional is asked to carry out tasks; and where possible ensuring that extraction of medical evidence is digital and built into practice systems.