According to e-Health Insider, the move, is expected to be piloted in Lincolnshire and could see patients use a smartphone app to book their own appointments, which will then link directly back to the GP practice system.
Negotiations are currently taking place with GPs in Lincolnshire to start allowing practice systems to directly interface with NHS Direct, so that a pilot can begin in autumn 2012.
If the GP partnership is agreed, patients will also have the option to use the NHS Direct website to check symptoms or seek health advice whilst booking an appointment with their local GP through the system's "clinical decision software".
The GP appointment app is within the second phase of a new digital pilot scheme led by the Department of Health, NHS Direct and NHS Choices, which aims to explore options for delivering an NHS 111 service through digital channels, whilst integrating the existing online health and symptom checkers.
However, a spokesperson for NHS Direct told E-Health Insider that: "there are no current plans to pilot GP appointment booking in the digital pilot" but said that there was "potential for such a scheme" in the future at the discretion of the Department of Health.
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Quelle/Source: Public Service, 14.05.2012
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