The 2025/26 GP contract and a new general practice patient charter You and Your General Practice set out expectations that patients must be able to contact their practice via phone, online or in person during core hours (Monday to Friday, 8am to 6.30pm).
Patients must be informed of the outcome of their query within one working day, and practices may no longer ask patients to call back the next day.
From October 1, practices must not close online consultations during core hours for ‘non-urgent appointment requests, medication queries and administrative requests’.
The charter also outlines patient responsibilities, encouraging the use of the NHS App, 111 and community pharmacy when appropriate. It sets out patients’ rights to register with a GP practice and how to raise concerns. Practices will be required to share a link to the charter on their website.
The intention is to improve access, reduce inequities and restore trust in the NHS’s ‘front door’. The changes form part of an additional £889m investment in general practice under the 2025/26 contract – the largest in over a decade.
The 8am scramble for same-day GP appointments, typically via congested phone lines, has become symbolic of wider NHS pressures. It is a result of GP practices capping appointments subject to staffing levels and closing online consultations after a self-set time or quota – often based on first-come-first-served systems and limited triage.
The causes are partly due to constrained capacity: GP numbers have declined relative to population growth since 2015. But the causes of the 8am scramble also reflect broader system failures, including missed elective and A&E targets. This strain is also compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing complexity of medical care and the demands of a growing, ageing population.
What if it doesn’t work? How you can have your say about the changes…
You and Your General Practice (YYGP) describes what practices and patients can expect of each other and has been developed to help patients get the best from their GP team. It also sets out how patients and or their representatives can provide feedback or raise concerns about their GP practice. All GP practices will have a link to the YYGP information on their website from October 1 on their practice website home page.
If you want to give feedback or raise a concern you can ask to speak to your practice manager. If preferred, you can contact Healthwatch South Tyneside at info@healthwatchsouthtyneside.co.uk or call 0191 4897952 or leave your feedback with North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board here: https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/nencicb/tell-us-what-you-think
- Luisa Pettigrew, Senior Policy Fellow at The Health Foundation, has written a detailed explainer which sets out the context of the new GP contract and general practice patient charter. Read it here: https://www.health.org.uk/features-and-opinion/blogs/the-end-of-the-8am-scramble
