Patients wanting a same-day GP appointment in one English county will have to persuade a “highly skilled” professional their need is urgent, it has been decided.

Oxfordshire is to introduce a county-wide triage system for urgent GP appointments as part of plans.

The county’s clinical commissioning group said patient would have no “automatic right” to same day appointments or home visits.

And urgent appointments would not necessarily be with the patient’s own practice, the CCG said.

It said health professionals would undertake the triage and send patients to “appropriate” members of the primary care team. They would make decisions based on their clinical expertise rather than relying on protocols, according to the plans.

The CCG says increasing demand from patients wanting same-day appointments is one of the major challenges for primary care in the county.

It refers to workforce shortages and staff recruitment difficulties as also posing problems.

Its proposals for a “new model” of primary care state that patients will remain registered with a single practice, which will provide continuity of care.

It says that some patients with significant medical needs will get 15-minute appointments – but GPs will only undertake 13 of these a day.

The Oxfordshire Local Medical Committee chair, Dr Prit Buttar, told the Oxford Mail: “The bottom line is that resources and demand don’t match. Anything that sounds like ‘sustainability’ is a cut in disguise.”