More than 240,000 people have now successfully registered with GP practices on-line as part of a new scheme, it has been announced.

On-line registration is currently available at more than 900 practices that have enrolled for a new digital register. NHS England said each online registration saves staff up to 15 minutes in administration time. It said the service is successfully matching registrants to their NHS numbers 90% of the time.

Stephen Kock, NHS England director of platforms, said: “This service reduces the administrative burden for general practice as well as making GP registration even more accessible to the public, offering patients more choice, convenience and consistency. We’re pleased to see a growing number of GP practices are coming on board, helping them save time and money. By recently integrating the service with the NHS App, we hope even more GP practices will take advantage of this new digital tool.”

London GP Dr Shanker Vijay said: “We live in a ‘one-click’ culture and we recognise that many busy people want online solutions. Vulnerable patients and those with physical access needs don’t need to visit the GP surgery to register, and people can access the service at any time, including outside of working hours to fit around their other responsibilities.”

Meanwhile, there remains wide variation in patient access to digital records across England, the Health Service Journal reported. Reporting on an internal NHS England paper, it says that in some areas just 6% of practices offer access while in other areas 66% of practices have enrolled to the scheme, which requires practices to link their records to the NHS app. The lowest rates are in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, Coventry and Warwickshire, Kent and Medway, North East London, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and Northamptonshire.

An NHS spokesperson said: “Nearly one in four practices across the country have now rolled-out automatic access to new health record information, benefitting over seven million patients who can now view their tests results, appointment notes and hospital letters online instead of having to contact their surgery. Building on this progress, the GP contract has been updated to ensure new health record information is available to all patients by 31 October 2023.”