Appointments at your GP Surgery
Your NHS account will show you GP appointments that have been made available for you to book via the NHS App up to 16 weeks in advance.
Please note your GP surgery will only make at least 25% of their appointments available to book online, which includes booking in the NHS App. The types of appointments are set by the GP surgery.
Therefore, if you cannot get the appointment that you want via the NHS App, in this instance we advise for you to contact your GP surgery to see if they have any other appointments that are not currently bookable online.
Disclaimer:
The NHS App works like a mirror and reflects your online account which is saved locally on your GP's computer system.
The NHS App team cannot view, amend or cancel your appointments. The NHS App can also not make appointments available to you.
Your practice are the administrators of your online account and only they have the authority and the ability to view your appointments from their computer system.
Your practice can contact their system supplier on your behalf, for guidance on making the appointments bookable online.
Emergency GP appointments
You cannot book urgent GP appointments in the NHS App.
Contact your surgery to get an urgent appointment. For urgent medical advice, go to 111.nhs.uk or call 111.
No appointments are listed
If there are no appointments available for you to book on the NHS App, it is because of one of the following reasons:
- Your GP surgery does not currently allow online appointment booking via the NHS App
- All available appointments have already been booked
- Your practice has not released any for that day
Your GP surgery will only make at least 25% of their appointments available to book online, which includes booking in the NHS App. Your practice are the administrators of your online account and only they have the authority to make appointments available to book for patients via the NHS App.
Therefore, if no appointments are available to book on the NHS App, we advise you to contact your GP surgery directly. They can inform you about their appointment booking policy and any available appointments that are not listed on the NHS App.
If you only see appointments listed at locations other than your GP surgery
- If you can see appointments which are available to book at different locations to the one you are registered at, this will be because your practice is part of a group of surgeries that share appointments. These are called branch surgeries.
- This gives you the choice to book available appointments at different locations.
- Therefore, if there are no appointments to book at your practices’ location, but there are appointments available to book at other locations, it is because your GP surgery does not have any appointments available to book via the NHS App at that time.
- In this instance, we advise that you can either book an appointment at one of the offered locations on the NHS App, or alternatively you can contact your GP surgery to see if they have any other available appointments that are not currently bookable online.
- As the NHS App works as a mirror to your GP’s local system, the NHS App team cannot make appointments available to you. Only your practice has the ability and the authority to determine what appointments are available for a patient to book via the NHS App.
If you cannot see upcoming GP appointments
You May Not See an Upcoming GP Appointment in the NHS App if:
1. You have booked the appointment with your GP directly (e.g. over the phone), it will only show if the practice clinical system is set up to show online booked/viewable appointments on the NHS App.
In this instance, we advise you to contact your practice directly as this query cannot be resolved by the NHS App team. Your practice are the administrators of your online account and only they have the authority and the ability to amend what you can/cannot see on the NHS App.
2. Your GP surgery stopped using online appointment booking after you booked the appointment
In this instance, we advise you to contact your practice directly to enquire if there have been any changes to their practice policy on booking appointments, as it is up to your practices’ discretion whether and how they choose to use the NHS App appointment booking system.
3. You have cancelled the appointment
If you have cancelled your GP appointment, it will no longer show in the NHS App. If you would like to book another appointment you can do this either through the NHS App if they are available, or by contacting your practice directly.
How to book an appointment
- Log in to the NHS App/ NHS Web
- Go to Services.
- Select Check for available GP appointments.
- This will take you to a page to Book a GP appointment.
- Select the type of appointment you need using the drop-down box.
Please note: If the appointment time you selected is now showing as unavailable, someone else may have booked your preferred appointment slot before you finished your booking.
If this happens, you can try searching again. There may still be a slot available at the same time, but with a different surgery member. If there are no other appointment slots that you would like to book, we advise that you contact your GP surgery to see if they have any other appointments available that are not currently bookable online.
Choosing an appointment type
Your GP surgery decides what appointment types are available. They may add more details to help you book the right appointment type.
If you are unsure on the type of appointment you require, click on the blue plus symbol next to 'Which type of appointment do I need?'
If you still need help choosing the right appointment, please contact your GP surgery.
If you cannot see the appointment type that you would like to book:
- If the appointment type you are looking for is not available at your surgery, it is because your GP surgery does not have any of these appointments available to book online via the NHS App at that time.
- Please note that your GP surgery will make at least 25% of their appointments available to book online, which includes booking in the NHS App. The types of appointments are set by the GP surgery.
- As the NHS App works as a mirror to your GP’s local system, the NHS App team cannot view, amend or cancel your appointments. The NHS App can also not make appointments available to you. Only your practice have the ability and the authority to determine what appointment types are available for a patient to book via the NHS App.
- Therefore, in this instance, we advise for you to contact your GP surgery to see if they have any other appointments that are not currently bookable online.
How to cancel an appointment
If your GP surgery allows online cancellations, you'll see a link to cancel on your upcoming appointment.
1. Log in to the NHS App/NHS Web
2. On the blue bar at the bottom of the screen, select ‘Your Health’
3. Select ‘Upcoming and Past Appointments’
4. Under ‘Upcoming Appointments’, select the appointment you want to cancel.
5. Then select ‘Cancel this appointment’.
Please note that your GP surgery may require 24 hours to 48 hours’ notice for cancellations.
If you do not have an option to cancel the appointment when you follow the steps above, it means your practice have not enabled appointment cancellation on their local GP system. Therefore, please contact your practice directly to cancel your appointment.
How to change a GP appointment
You cannot change your appointment details using the NHS App or NHS website.
If you need to change the date or time of your appointment, you can either:
- Cancel the existing appointment and book a new one.
- Contact your GP surgery directly and ask them to change the appointment for you.
Please note that your GP surgery may require 24 hours to 48 hours’ notice for cancellations.
How to add an appointment reminder to your calendar
Unfortunately, the functionality to add appointment reminders to your calendar is not available at the moment.
Our development team is working on this feature, and it will be available to you in the near future.