Online requests to GP practices rise steeply – with nine million received in one month

NHS England has hailed a ‘sharp rise’ in people contacting their GPs via online tools, as new data showed GP practices received over nine million online requests in a single month.

The latest available data released by the commissioner on online access showed the requests are continuing to rise, with GP practices across England receiving 9.2 million online requests in January, up from 7.8 million the previous month.

The commissioner had already celebrated an increase in the number of requests in November last year, when it said that requests submitted to GP practices had gone up by over one fifth in the first month of new contractual access requirements.

However, GP leaders have warned that the rise in online requests means that GPs are able to offer fewer face-to-face appointments as staff have to spend more time going through the requests.

NHS England highlighted data from the North West which showed that in December last year more than three quarters of a million people in the region submitted online forms to their practice, but this rose by nearly 40% in January, to over a million.

NHSE said that the suppliers of online consultation systems provided the data on behalf of the practices that they serve, and which have agreed to participate in the collection, but that some system suppliers are ‘not yet able to provide data’.

It said that it received partial submissions for January 2026 from Sensely, Silicon Practice and iPlato, so data for practices using these systems will be incomplete. A full submission for January from iPlato was received after the publication cutoff, so this will be included in the publication of February’s data.

NHSE regional medical director for primary care in the North West Dr Paula Cowan said: ‘When speaking to local people about what matters to them most about NHS services, being able to get timely access to general practice services is high up on their list and its high on our list too.

‘Providing additional ways of accessing general practice means it will be easier for people to get in touch with us. So for those people who like to use online services, having access to online forms will be great for them, but we’ll still be contactable, as always, by other routes too.

‘What is clear from the data is that general practice, and primary care more broadly, including community pharmacies, are working harder than ever before.’

It comes after NHS England launched ‘a new GP online access campaign’ to ‘increase knowledge and use of online forms’ as a route for patients to contact their GP.

But the BMA warned that the contractual requirement means GPs ‘sit in front of a screen for hours and hours’, resulting in fewer face-to-face appointments for patients.

BMA GP committee deputy chair Dr David Wrigley said that the online access requirements mean he now has ‘at least 25% less face-to-face appointments’ with his patients.

The Doctors’ Association GP spokesperson Dr Steve Taylor told Pulse that the increase in requests shown in the new data means GPs are doing fewer face-to-face and telephone appointments.

He said: ‘Online access has been heralded as good news for patients and the figures highlighting a potential 40% increase on the face of it is good news.

‘But there are caveats, December is never the same as January, 33 million appointments were delivered in January versus 31 million in December, and January 2024 and 2025 show the same numbers of appointments.

‘Data is being collected better than it was before so it’s impossible to be sure how much of this is increased data collected or real numbers.

‘Online forms are work for GPs and their teams, so the data means 2 million more bits of work without the resources to provide them.

‘GPs want better access to care for patients but they recognise it’s not online forms that patients want, it’s GP appointments, and without the resources reality will not be met with the expectations raised by this Government.’

The new GP contract for 2026/27 will include a specific requirement for online consultation systems ‘not to cap the number of requests that can be submitted’ during core hours.

The BMA is currently in dispute with the Government over the online access changes implemented last year, and asked NHS England to reconsider them as part of next year’s contract.

But while NHS England said that they ‘heard feedback’ about safety and capacity for practices related to unlimited requests coming in during core hours, they have not reconsidered it, adding that ‘this is not a new requirement’ and it is needed to ‘enable equitable patient access to digital routes’.

In addition to this, practices will also be required to share ‘timely’ data on online consultations as part of the 2026/27 contract. 

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