Britt Jones
The way you book your appointments at the doctors is changing, and it’ll have a big impact on you from tomorrow onwards.
Starting this year, the UK’s NHS is implementing changes to their appointment protocols.
Previously, a lot of GPs allowed patients to call and request to see a practitioner or nurse on the same day, whilst others had rolled out triage forms to submit online for urgent and non-urgent slots.
In other cases, patients have been told to ‘call back tomorrow’ if there are no appointments available for the same day, but according to the contract for 2026/27, that’s no longer the case.
Advert
The NHS Confederation confirmed that the year ahead will instead require practices to respond differently.
The Confederation states: “Practices must provide a same-day response for all urgent patient requests and may not ask patients to contact practices at a later date.”
However, it aims to respond and see a 'percentage' of those urgent cases, and where applicable, provide a timely response confirming the next steps by the end of the next working day.
On top of the new calling method, practices will now be required to use Advice and Guidance before issuing a referral where appropriate to reduce referrals that do not need to be sent elsewhere.
Dr Amir Khan, an experienced GP recently spoke about this new process on the No Appointment Necessary Podcast, where he explained that under the process, he can no longer simply refer a patient, who will then receive an appointment letter from the relevant department.
Instead, he has to write to the department and ask them what they would 'advise me to do' before he's able to send a referral.
From then on, he said he has to implement everything the specialist at the hospital has suggested, and 'then and only then' can he refer the patient.
When he was told by the host that it seems as though 'we don't trust GPs to make sensible decisions', Dr Khan said, 'it's exactly that, and our hospital time waitlists are too long' - meaning the process is to shorten those times.
In his online podcast clip, the doc wrote: "New GP contract changes mean your GP will no longer be able to refer directly to hospital consultants when they or you feel you need to be seen by one.
"Instead we have to ask for 'advice and guidance'.
"Honestly, it’s a joke!"
The 'worrying' change, however, does not apply to 'red flag' cancer symptoms, which Dr Khan says still falls under the two-week wait and immediate referral.
People online have since shared their thoughts on the new system, with many accusing the NHS of prioritising statistics and not their patients.
One person slammed: "We all know it's a way of keeping waiting list statistics down!!!"
Another said: "Totally ridiculous & wasting valuable time ! Do they want everyone to go down the private route because that’s what is reducing waiting times . They are prolonging people’s agony ."
Someone else wrote: "That would explain why my GP put cancer risk on my referral despite telling me that the risk is so low that I shouldn’t worry about it!"
Within the new contract information page, the NHS revealed all of its ‘five key access metrics’, explaining that it’s prioritising:
According to the service, this is to reduce how many people contact the surgery for an appointment, and to provide clarity over when they'll be seen.
Tyla reached out to the NHS for comment.