NHS booking online scheme delayed
The government’s scheme to allow patients to book NHS appointments online is a year behind schedule, it was admitted today.
NHS chief executive Nigel Crisp revealed the length of the delay to the Commons public accounts committee -contradicting a statement made by the former health secretary John Reid in January that the system was only weeks behind.
So far only 20,000 online appointments have been made using the ‘choose and book’ system, compared to the ten million envisaged by government.
Sir Nigel put the hold-up down to problems caused when linking hospital computers to GPs’ computers, and not by the software itself.
Patients were able to choose the hospital where they wanted to be treated between 57 per cent and 90 per cent of the time, he said, and 85 per cent of GPs were now registered with the new booking system.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health it was remained confident of “continually increasing numbers of patients booked electronically throughout 2006”.
