Rosie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rosie Cooper on 2016-03-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what guidance his Department has issued on the length of time a patient should expect to wait between a telephone consultation taking place and being given an appointment to see their GP.

Alistair Burt

There is no central guidance to general practitioner (GP) practices on waiting times for telephone consultations.

GPs can conduct telephone consultations with patients if they feel it is appropriate to do so. This could remove the need for the patient to go on to have a face to face consultation, however, it is for the GP to use his or her clinical judgement to decide if and when a face to face consultation should take place, and for the patient to decide if they wish to attend.

This Government is committed to improving access to GP consultations and the Prime Minister’s GP Access Fund encourages practices in the schemes to use innovative methods to provide appointments to patients.