An increasing number of patients are looking to access their medical records online claims NHS England.
Figures show there has been a 19% increase in patients’ online activity with 21% of patients now using online services, as opposed to just 2% last year.
The number of patients able to book their appointments and request repeat prescriptions has also jumped to 91% and 88% respectively, according to the data which date to September this year.
NHS England is encouraging GP practices to embrace the use of online technology to help provide patient services. These include offering appointments and repeat prescriptions as well as access to summary records.
The drive to help GP practices offer online services comes as a response to the 2014/15 General Medical Services and Personal Medical Services contracts. These required all practices to make available and promote patient online services to their patients from March 2015.
There are a number of resources available to practices that aren’t currently offering online healthcare options but are considering doing so including NHS England’s patient online programme.
The patient online programme is an initiative that provides resources on different areas of online healthcare such as promoting online services and ensuring that information is kept secure.
