NHS tech project hits new milestone

The NHS says its controversial Choose and Book system is gaining momentum but use by GPs is still low.

On 10 July, the appointment booking system had its busiest day with 10,638 bookings made, compared to an average of 6,000 per day at the beginning of May and 2,000 per day in January.

Choose and Book gives patients a choice of place, date and time for first outpatient appointments. It is being used to manage around 20 per cent of referrals, from GP surgeries to outpatient appointments.

The project's medical director Michael Thick said the system is making good progress - and that the increase in bookings demonstrates that the core service works and is fit for purpose.

Even though use of the service is growing, it is significantly behind schedule.

The original aim of the 2004 NHS improvement plan was for 100 per cent of bookings to take place electonically by the end of 2005. This target was missed due to "developments in the technical requirements" which lead to a "greater implementation challenge", said health minister Ivan Lewis in response to a written parliamentary question last week.

There also seems to be some difficulty in persuading GPs to use it.

"We now expect to reach a Choose and Book utilisation level of 90 per cent of general practitioner referrals by the end of March 2007. As at 2 July 2006, utilisation stood at 20.4 per cent," said Lewis.

NHS Connecting for Health had not returned silicon.com's request for comment at the time of publication.