GP online bookings causing isolation for older people, finds study
- 7 May 2026
- Older people are being excluded from GP services as booking systems move online, a study found
- The charity Re-engage says that many older people lack the skills or access to use online services
- It is calling for the government to guarantee non-digital access to GP appointments
Older people are being excluded from GP services because of a shift towards digital-first booking systems, a study has found.
The report ‘Care on hold’, published by the charity Re-engage, highlights that low internet use among older people, hard-to-navigate systems, and the removal of traditional booking routes are leading to delayed care and increased pressure on emergency services.
A survey by the charity found that one in three of 668 respondents aged over 75-years-old could only book a GP appointment online, with more than three quarters (77%) saying they did not want this method of booking to become more prevalent.
Jenny Willott, chief executive at Re-engage, said: “The increasing use of online bookings is leaving older people frustrated, feeling they are being discriminated against and dehumanised.
“They clearly prefer to get a GP appointment by phone or in-person, but say they are being left behind by the constant march of digitalisation.
“Some no longer bother even trying to get an appointment while others take the risky route of treating themselves. It really is a bleak picture.”
The report identified that online booking and consultations are core issues driving negative attitudes towards GP services in older people.
Seven in 10 (70%) people surveyed said that they lacked the equipment or skills to book digitally, and 63% said that online access increased their feelings of loneliness and isolation.
The survey also found that 62% of older people do not have someone to help them make a booking online, and only one in five visit practices in person.
Freedom of Information requests by Re-engage to integrated care boards and health boards revealed uneven GP access across the UK, with 81% of respondents in England saying that telephone and in person appointments were available, compared to 71% in Wales and 21% in Scotland.
Re-engage is calling for UK governments to “ensure the choice of phone and in-person GP bookings remains” and include a condition that non-digital access will be available in GP contracts.
The charity also wants older people to be involved in shaping digital health policy and service design and for there to be centrally collected data to “identify age groups affected adversely by digitalisation”.
A spokesperson for NHS England told Digital Health News: “While online booking forms offer patients an additional way to access care, they are not a replacement for traditional methods, and all GP practices are contractually required to allow patients to book appointments by phone or by attending reception in person.
“We have upgraded thousands of GP telephone systems, and by expanding the hours for submitting initial online requests, we are freeing up phone lines for those who prefer to make an appointment by phone.”
Digital Health News contacted the British Medical Association for comment.
To learn more about digital exclusion listen to this episode of Digital Health Unplugged which explores whether the NHS’s shift to digital is improving access to healthcare or creating new barriers.
3 Comments
This article fails to consider those who are excluded from healthcare because digitalisation in the NHS goes hand in hand with denying patients the protection of the law to which they are entitled. The NHS has developed an absolutely clear strategy for achieving this and an equally clear strategy for denying that this is what they are doing. Those are demonstrable facts. The only way that anyone can protect themselves against this abuse by the NHS is to avoid having an NHS record. That might mean paying for healthcare, for those who can. It might mean forgoing access to healthcare for those who cannot pay. For many, the problem with digital is what the NHS are doing with our data, without our consent and in contravention of data protection law. This is witnessed by the (currently) around 28,000 signatures on a petition to Parliament for the right to opt out of processing of the signatories’ patient data on the Federated Data Platform (FDP). It is also witnessed by the wholly evasive and specious response of he DHSC to the petition. This is digital exclusion and it has nothing to do with patients not having access to digital technology, or not knowing how to use it. If this group is overlooked it is not because they are silent or because the NHS is unaware of these people. The group is deliberately overlooked because the NHS chooses to overlook them. Their existence is inconvenient to Mr Streeting and it is inconvenient to anyone who is consrtrained to comply with Mr Streeting’s policies.
An interesting point made Cheryl. You may be interested in our recent documentary-style episode of Digital Health Unplugged where we explored whether the NHS’s shift to digital is improving access to healthcare or creating new barriers. We cover lots of different groups of people in it: https://www.digitalhealth.net/2026/04/the-forgotten-patients-is-the-digital-nhs-leaving-people-behind/
Cheryl, with respect, I think this rather conflates two different issues. There are legitimate questions about NHS data governance, the FDP, consent and opt-outs, but that is not the same thing as older or less digitally confident patients being practically excluded from appointments by apps, portals and online triage systems. A patient who cannot navigate a smartphone booking system is not in the same position as someone who chooses to avoid NHS care because they distrust data processing…
You also make some very large claims – that the NHS is deliberately denying legal protections, and operating a strategy of denial (?seemingly intentionally) – without specifying the legal breach or evidencing that intent. A petition with 28,000 signatures shows that a concern exists; it does not prove anything else. I think really you’re describing a different access problem and data governance concerns that don’t have anything to do with older people or equitable access to the NHS
Comments are closed.