HEALTHWATCH Surrey is teaming up with eight GP practices across the county to help raise awareness of their online services, as part of a national campaign.

A recent report by the watchdog highlighted low awareness of online GP services, such as appointment booking, repeat prescriptions and patient access to parts of their GP record.

During Get Online Week from October 2 to October 8, volunteers from the watchdog will be visiting the surgeries to gather views on how the current system is working. They will be at Farnham’s Downing Street practice from 10am to midday on October 2.

Lisa Sian, operations manager at Healthwatch Surrey, said: “When we asked people about online GP services, many said they didn’t know about them or hadn’t used them, but the people that did use them said that they worked well.

“We hope that raising awareness of online GP services will help people to have more flexible access to appointments, prescriptions and test results, particularly for those who may find it difficult to communicate over the phone or in a busy surgery.

“Even if you haven’t used online GP services, we want to hear from you. This will help us and local decision makers understand what more could be done to make it easier to use these services in the future.”

Residents will also be able to share their views about online GP services via a survey available on the Healthwatch Surrey website: www.healthwatch

surrey.co.uk/get-online-week/.

Anyone who has a comment or experience about GP practices, social care or other NHS service can contact Healthwatch Surrey on 0303 303 0023 or email [email protected].