Current status: Answered by Neil Gray on 5 June 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-37338 by Neil Gray on 20 May 2025, since the amendment of the GP contractor regulations in 2022, what analysis it has undertaken to understand the extent to which GP surgeries are offering an online appointment booking system for patients.
The Scottish Government has not undertaken analysis of the extent to which GP surgeries are offering an online appointment booking system for patients since the regulations were changed in 2022.
The Scottish Government does not have a role in assessing the performance of GP contractors as those contracts are between GP practices and NHS boards. GP practices are expected to regularly consider whether it is desirable, in order to meet the reasonable needs of their registered patients, to increase the proportion of appointments which are made available online to their registered patients and if it is desirable, to increase the proportion of those appointments. The needs of every practice population differ and the Scottish Government is not in a position to determine, at a national level, what the arrangements in any individual practice should be.