Tens of thousands of GP patients in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough switch to ordering prescriptions online, figures show

The Royal College of GPs has called electronic prescribing services “hugely successful”, saying online technology can benefit doctors and patients alike.

Over the past two years, 50,288 patients in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group signed up to request repeat prescriptions online, according to figures from GPs in the area.

The number of people registered with the service has gone up from 201,595 in October 2016, to 251,883 last month - a rise of 25%.

The number of prescriptions ordered through GP online services has doubled since 2016.

So far this year, 605,345 prescriptions have been requested. That’s the equivalent of 1,991 a day.

From January to October 2016, that figure was 318,160, or 1,043 a day.

The option to book appointments online has also become more popular.

The figures show the number of appointments booked, changed or cancelled online has risen over the last two years.

This year so far, an average of 4,711 appointments a week were organised online, compared to 3,864 a week in 2016.

Online services are free and available to nearly everyone registered with a GP. More than 99% of practices in England now have this option available to patients.

Registered users can also access parts of their medical record through the service, including information about allergies, vaccinations and test results.

In Cambridgeshire and Peterborough just over a quarter of GP patients are signed up for at least one online service.

The Royal College of GPs called online services a “benefit” to GPs, practice teams and patients.

College chair Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard said: “GPs have always been at the forefront of new innovation: we pioneered both electronic patient records and electronic prescribing in the NHS.”

Prof Stokes-Lampard said that patients having online access to their GP surgery can be both convenient for patients and time-saving for busy doctors and practice staff.

She said that electronic prescribing services that link surgeries directly to pharmacies have also been “hugely successful”.

She added: “However, whilst these services can undoubtedly benefit some patients, they might not be suitable for everyone.

“That’s why it’s important that surgeries are also able to continue to offer more traditional means of delivering their services, for patients who prefer to speak to their practice directly.

“In an ideal world, practices will be able to offer all patients a wide range of different access to general practice services, but this would involve having the resources to do so.”

NHS England said it would “seek to take further advantage of digital tools, whilst continuing to provide traditional services”.

Chief digital officer Juliet Bauer said: “The NHS wants to empower the public to take more control of their own healthcare.

“It’s incredibly positive that over 15 million, or over 25% of, patients in England are signed up to online services in their GP practice and so many are going online to order repeat prescriptions and book GP appointments.”

Across England, an average of 120,000 prescriptions are ordered a day through online services, almost triple the number in 2016.