Skip to main content

GP Appointments in the NHS App

Patients can book appointments through the NHS App. Get advice on making appointments available and using language patients can understand.

Page contents

How to make appointments available for online booking

Offering some appointments through the NHS App can help reduce the number of phone calls to your practice.

You can use features in your clinical systems to support your processes.

These can include:
  • using embargos, so that appointments become available online at the same time as your phone lines open
  • limiting the number of appointments patients can have booked at one time - but be aware this will cap the number of total appointments, whether they are booked online, over the phone or in person
  • using the messages that patients see on online booking systems to give patients more information to help them book the right appointment - if you use this, you should make sure it appears correctly in all the third party apps that you use
  • if it's available in the system you use, asking the patient to specify a reason for booking, which can then help reception staff triage and contact any patient who has booked an appointment that's not suitable

The methods vary in different clinical systems. You can get support from your system supplier. We have provided brief guidelines on making your appointments available online within specific clinical systems.

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

Making appointments available

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: 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: You can also update your 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 name appointments and what information to include

Check how your appointments appear to patients and make some changes if you need to. Learn more about naming appointments 

Check your work

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 NHS App.

Last edited: 4 February 2025 11:33 am