What's happening?
From 1st of October 2025, practices will need to keep their online consultation tools open throughout core hours (8am–6:30pm, Monday to Friday) for certain non-urgent requests.1 This includes:
Routine, non-urgent appointment requests
Medication queries
Administrative requests
The change is part of NHS England’s commitment to improving patient access.
What changes have been made to Patient Triage, and what support is available?
A new option for non-urgent routine requests: a new route under the ‘admin’ section of the form designed for patients who need to book a pre-defined list of routine care appointments (cervical screening, long-term condition reviews, vaccinations etc.) See what it looks like here.
A hard close on form submissions at the end of the day: it will no longer be possible for patients midway through a submission to message past closing time, giving you confidence you won’t receive requests past your defined hours.
Clearer messages for patients: the hours each of the forms are available have been made clearer to patients and include warnings on the new “routine care” form to reduce the risk of patients with new symptoms contacting the practice through this route.
Default opening hours updated to 8am–6:30pm: the default opening hours for practices have been updated. Any custom hours you’ve already set remain unchanged.
Improved configuration: it is easier to customise your form opening hours, and choose which forms (admin or medical), you keep open outside of those times. You can find out more about upcoming changes to your settings configuration here.
Additional support for practices looking to adopt or improve total triage: we recognise moving to extended online access is not something that can be solved by software alone, so we’ve increased the support available for your practice to operate or optimise a total triage model to help manage inbound. Over 1,150 practices now use a total triage model, and you can join them by starting here!
What is included under Routine Care to prevent a patient from raising urgent/medical issues?
The new “routine care” addition to the Patient Triage form is designed to support patients with the administrative task of arranging routine care rather than new symptoms (which need clinical triage to determine urgency). We know that patients have historically submitted routine requests like this in other forms, so we created a form to allow them to arrange this type of care.
The patient is presented with a dropdown menu of a pre-defined list of appointment types they are able to arrange:
NHS Health Check (aged 40-74)
Cervical screening (smear test)
Pre-travel appointment
6-week postnatal check
Smoking cessation
Annual learning disability health check
Long-term condition review
Medication review
Vaccinations
✍️ As well as a free text box for patients to enter additional details.
To prevent patients from raising urgent or medical requests:
A warning is surfaced at the top of the page that states, “Do not use this form for new or ongoing symptoms”. ⚠️ This warning will also be visible on all other admin forms shortly.
Patients still need to review and tick the “check it’s not an emergency” box ahead of the admin flow, to divert patients to 999 for emergencies
A warning is surfaced in the form which persists the message: “If you need more urgent help, call your GP practice. If it's closed, visit NHS 111 online or call 111. In an emergency call 999”. The message above this can be customised by the practice to direct patients on what to do, what to expect and turnaround times for requests.
As practices adjust to new ways of working along with changes to online access from October 1st, we welcome any feedback about this form, its use and the appointment types listed. If you have suggestions, please share them through support@accurx.com or by clicking the green message icon in the bottom right corner of our website or help centre.
FAQs
What if the options in the “routine care” drop-down include things we don’t offer?
What if the options in the “routine care” drop-down include things we don’t offer?
The options in the dropdown list try to reflect common routine appointment types/reasons for care carried out in primary care, and the list was constructed based on discussions by our clinical team and conversations with practices. We acknowledge that there might be some aspects of care that are not delivered by certain practices, but these represent types of routine care that a patient may feasibly reach out to a practice for.
As the form does not book care directly and instead surfaces the request within the inbox, practices can respond as they normally would, for example, if there is no in-house smoking cessation service, you can reply with directions to local or national stop smoking services and resources to support your patients. If you feel there are more appointment types that could be offered here, please share your feedback through support@accurx.com or by clicking the green message icon in the bottom right corner of our website or help centre.
Does closing medical requests earlier, but having the admin form, including the “routine care” form open from 8am to 6:30pm make our practice contract compliant?
Does closing medical requests earlier, but having the admin form, including the “routine care” form open from 8am to 6:30pm make our practice contract compliant?
How practices achieve compliance with contractual requirements around online access is a decision for each practice, often in partnership with their respective ICB. While we develop features to support communication between practices and patients, there isn't a specific sign-off, for example, from NHSE, for functionality built against contractual requirements, and the ability to maintain compliance extends beyond software alone.
We understand there's some uncertainty about how patient access requirements may change and how they'll evolve, but we want to assure you that we'll continue to be responsive to feedback and make necessary updates as required for you and your patients.
Can I configure each of the admin forms and/or the medical and admin forms to close at different specific times?
Can I configure each of the admin forms and/or the medical and admin forms to close at different specific times?
We currently allow you to customise the “opening hours” for your forms in general. This is for consistency across the product, for patient experience, and to ensure alignment with the customisable boxes that surface across all forms. Once this time is configured, you can choose which forms to have open outside of these hours (medical and admin/admin only / no forms live).
The yellow banner message, which can be customised, will update when forms are accessed outside of these defined hours, so you can provide instructions and set expectations for patients at different times of day.
Practice's will soon be able to configure admin and medical form hours separately. You can find out more about this here
If we need the medical form to close earlier than 6:30pm and the admin form to open until only 6:30pm, can we do this?
If we need the medical form to close earlier than 6:30pm and the admin form to open until only 6:30pm, can we do this?
Patient Triage can still cap requests at a certain number and manually suspend online forms as needed. These features have been historically widely requested and valued by our users to support their workflows.
While compliance with the contractual requirements is something each practice decides, often in partnership with their respective ICB, if you would like a configuration where the medical form closes before the admin form (based on capacity) and all forms close at 6:30pm, you can set your opening hours from 8:00am to 6:30pm, with both forms closed outside of these hours. You can then make use of the capping feature (number of requests) to limit according to capacity, and manual suspension as needed during the day.
We know the BMA is in active discussion with NHSE regarding safeguards at the disposal of practices to support safe access, and we await the outcome of these discussions as the negotiations evolve. We are keeping an eye on how things progress, and we'll continue to be responsive to feedback and make necessary updates as required for you and your patients.
What is there to prevent a patient from raising urgent medical issues in the admin free-text boxes?
What is there to prevent a patient from raising urgent medical issues in the admin free-text boxes?
Although there is a risk of patients adding information inappropriate to the request type or urgency in any free text field, we know that free text fields are extremely valuable in allowing patients to articulate themselves, and for healthcare professionals to have the information necessary to deliver care. Across the product, we have mitigations in place to reduce the risk of patients entering inappropriate information in these free-text boxes, including:
a warning box on the form landing page that is customisable by the practice to articulate turnaround times, processes, and to set expectations, with a permanent message underneath on what to do if more urgent help is required.
A warning page at the start of each form that directs a patient to A&E or 999 if they have an emergency
Clear delineation on each option as to what it should be used for
An additional warning on the “routine care” and “other admin” request forms to not use these routes to access care for new symptoms / medical queries
Can I switch off the “routine care” option entirely?
Can I switch off the “routine care” option entirely?
The Routine Care form can be switched on/off by admin users via the Patient Triage settings under 'Forms' 👇
If you still have any questions or concerns, feel free to chat with us using the green message bubble in the bottom right-hand corner of this page. 👉