Choose and book will improve over this summer, Professor Mike Pringle, GP lead for NHS Connecting for Health has pledged.
Professor Pringle told EHI Primary Care that while he understood GPs’ current frustrations with the system, improvements are already being tried and more are on the way.
He said: “E-booking is a great boon for patients. The choice part is becoming more and more effective all the time especially as directories of service get better and people understand how to use the system.”
Speaking after sustained criticism from the BMA over the last month, he said: “When people have started using it they have naturally found things that they would prefer to be different. But it’s like all software evolving from a good base. It will get better and better.”
He said: “I think it is a programme that is going well and is responding to the feedback from users.”
A new version, 2.2, due in the autumn, will solve one of GPs’ major gripes – passwords. Currently the task of allocating patients a password to enable them to access e-booking falls to doctors. Version 2.2 will generate passwords for patients without the GP having to be involved, he said.
It will also allow greater integration into GPs’ existing clinical systems rather than having to use a web-based system, he promised.