Overview

• Practices must open from 08:00 to 18:30 Monday to Friday and be reachable in person, by phone, online or via the NHS App.
• Every request for appointments or medical advice will be clinically assessed, with patients told within one working day what will happen next.
• Under the new charter, practices are not permitted to tell patients to call back the next day.
• Online consultation tools must remain available during core hours for non-urgent needs, and GP Connect must be enabled so other providers can access patient records.
• Ministers frame the changes as a way to end the early-morning rush for appointments as part of a wider Plan for Change following a February agreement with the BMA.