The doctors’ union the BMA has given the health secretary, Wes Streeting, until Wednesday 1 October to prevent a formal dispute over plans to allow patients to make unlimited online consultation requests.
From the first of next month, patients will be able to make online requests for appointments, as well as medication and administrative queries, to GP surgeries from 8 am to 6 30 pm, Monday to Friday. But the BMA said that, without promised safeguards, the new online system would threaten patient safety and risk exacerbating GP burnout.
The union said that, without additional workforce or measures such as IT safeguards to filter urgent cases, this could delay dealing with serious and life threatening problems among patients or could …
