I am pleased that Lion Health have announced a number of changes today to their appointment booking system after listening to feedback from patients.
This year, I invited local people to take part in a survey about GP surgeries. Coupled with regular correspondence, I am very much aware of the problems with the appointments booking system at Lion Health. 95% of nearly 600 people I surveyed said it was important GP surgeries improve their booking systems for appointments.
That is why I highlighted this issue during Health and Social Care Parliamentary Questions recently, when I asked the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care about what more could be done to make it easier for people to book appointments and access test results at their GP surgery. I was pleased to hear from the Secretary of State that the number of face-to-face appointments is increasing.
At a local level, I am pleased that Lion Health has listened to patients’ feedback and has implemented a number of changes to the way people can book appointments. These include:
- More appointments available to be pre-booked online that will be released at various stages of the day.
- From 7:30am for same day appointments
- From 7:55am for appointments one week in advance
- From 7pm for appointments the following day
- Same day appointments and those booked up to two weeks in advance can still be booked by phone.
- Bookable appointments outside of normal working hours.
- For patients eligible for home visits, these can be requested before 11:30am daily.
I am hopeful that these changes will make it easier for patients to book appointments at Lion Health in the way they want at a time that suits them.
