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GP Appointments in the NHS App

Patients can view, book and cancel GP appointments in the NHS App. Get advice on making appointments available, enabling appointment cancellation and using language that patients can understand.

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What you need to know

Book an appointment

You can make appointments available for patients to book in the NHS App.

Under this option, patients can also see the option to use an online form to ask about a health problem. This is also known as an online consultation; find out more about online consultations in the NHS App.

Manage GP appointments

Patients can also see information about upcoming and past appointments, cancel appointments they no longer need, and add GP appointments to their device’s calendar.

Appointment notes and other updates

Patients can see their consultation notes from their GP appointments. Patients can see their record from the date they got online access, or you can enable them to view their full historic records; find out more about making patients' GP record visible in the NHS App.

Request a letter or information

Patients can make administrative requests by filling in an online form. They can ask about fit notes, test results or other documents without having to phone the GP surgery. This works in the same way as the Ask about a health problem service above.

In your clinical system, you can:

Make appointments viewable
  • control if a patient’s appointments are viewable in the NHS App or other 3rd party applications, whether booked through the App or over the phone
Make appointments bookable
  • control what appointments are made available to book and when
  • make online appointments available at the same time phone lines open using embargos
  • limit how many appointments each patient can book at a time - be aware this caps the number of all appointments, whether booked online, over the phone and in person
  • control whether patients can book appointments at branch surgeries
Help patients book the right appointments
  • add messages in online booking systems to help patients book the right appointment, make sure this appears correctly in all third-party apps you use
  • ask patients to give a reason for an appointment to help triage patients and contact those who’ve booked appointments that aren’t suitable
Enable appointment cancellations
  • enable patients to cancel appointments that are visible in the NHS App
  • set a time limit on how far in advance a patient can cancel appointment, for example you can cancel up to one hour before the appointment

Features may vary depending on your system supplier.

Make sure patients can understand what appointments they’re booking; find out more about how to name appointments and what information to include.

How to make appointments available

The App will show any appointments available for online booking within the next 16 weeks.

Below are brief guidelines on making your appointments available online within specific clinical systems.

When you've made adjustments to the settings in your clinical system, set up a test patient to see if they appear how you would expect them to in the App.

TPP SystmOne: Instructions to make appointments bookable online
  1. Check the settings in Online Services > Appointment Booking. 
  2. Make sure Enable appointment booking is checked. (You have probably already activated this for GP online services.)
  3. Decide whether you want to allow booking to all slot types, rota type and clinicians, or specify which ones. Use the radio buttons to do this.
  4. If you choose to specify, a dialogue box will open move the ones you want to make bookable over to the list on the other side.
  5. When you specify which are bookable, make sure they match what is bookable over the phone, particularly for general appointments and daily emergency appointments.
EMIS/Optum: Instructions to make appointments bookable online
  1. Check the settings in the Appointment Book tab.
  2. Highlight the slots you want to make bookable online, by clicking and or dragging, or using ctrl-click.
  3. Right click, select Slot Properties, and make sure the Patient Facing Services check box is ticked.
  4. Make sure the appointments you have made bookable online match what is bookable over the phone, particularly for general appointments and daily emergency appointments.
EMIS/Optum: Update appointment templates to make appointments automatically bookable online
  1. Click on Create session.
  2. Select Load from template at the bottom left of the pop-up box.
  3. Select the session template you want to amend. It will load up in the session preview on the right hand side.
  4. Highlight the slots you want to make bookable online, by clicking and or dragging, or using ctrl-click.
  5. Right click, select Slot Properties, and make sure the patient facing services check box is ticked.
  6. Click Apply and close.
  7. Save the template.

Any future appointment sessions the template is applied to will be made available online

How to enable appointment cancellations

TPP: Instructions for enabling appointment cancellations

  1. Navigate to Setup > Users & Policy > Organisation Preferences>Online services> Appointment Cancellation

  2. Tick Enable appointment cancelling

You can choose to limit how close to an appointment time an appointment can be cancelled  

You can also choose to receive a task when a patient cancels an appointment. 

EMIS/Optum: Instructions for enabling appointments

  1. Go to System Tools > EMAS Manager 

  2. Select Patient Facing Services

  3. Enable Appointments  

Even where practices are configured not to allow online appointment booking, patients can still cancel appointments online provided the Appointments option is enabled in EMAS Manager. 

Find out more about appointments in the NHS App.

Benefits for staff and patients

Reduces phone calls and administration burden
Reduces phone calls and administration burden
  • reduces the 8am rush as patients don’t need to call to book or cancel appointments
  • staff save time matching records as patients can verify their identity using NHS login
  • reduces manual administrative steps and errors as it improves workflow by integrating with the national spine
Reduces missed appointments
Reduces missed appointments
  • patients can easily add reminders to their device calendar, further reducing the possibility of DNAs
  • patients can easily cancel appointments in the App, reducing the number of did not attend (DNA) appointments
  • gives greater choice and convenience to help improve patient satisfaction
Saves cost
Saves cost
  • booking appointments in the App means fewer letter and SMS messaging costs

Find out what’s new and what’s coming soon with appointments in the NHS App roadmap.

Further support

For further support, please contact your clinical system supplier:

Find out when and how to contact your clinical system supplier and the NHS App team.

Further information

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Last edited: 21 April 2026 7:43 am