We welcome it. But we’d be doing practices a disservice if we didn’t say this clearly: the contract has been written as if the infrastructure problem is already solved. For many practices, it isn’t.
The 8am problem hasn’t gone away
Anyone who works in or with a GP surgery knows what happens at 8am. Phones light up. The queue builds before the doors open. Reception teams scramble. Patients who can’t get through try again. And again.
The new contract requires same-day handling of urgent contacts. That’s the right outcome. But it doesn’t address the underlying dynamic that makes 8am so brutal: a mismatch between when patients make contact and the capacity available to respond intelligently.
Telling a practice to handle urgent patients the same day, when their phone system can’t distinguish between an urgent call and a repeat prescription query, doesn’t solve the problem. It just adds a compliance requirement on top of an unresolved operational one.
Data collection without the right tools is just more pressure
The contract introduces data collection on five access metrics, including call waiting times between 8 and 10am and the percentage of urgent patients seen the same day. This is sensible policy – understanding demand is the first step to managing it.
But a significant number of practices are still running phone systems that cannot produce this data. They’ll be asked to report on metrics their infrastructure cannot measure. It’s a system-level gap that the new contract assumes no longer exists.
If practices must now respond to every contact by the end of the next working day, cannot cap online consultation requests, and must see urgent patients the same day – all of which we support – then contact volumes hitting reception teams will increase. Without tools that can intelligently handle and triage that demand, the burden falls on people. And GP practice staff are already stretched thin.
Not all virtual receptionists are equal
NHS England recently issued guidance reminding practices to carefully assess virtual receptionist solutions before signing up. The advice is sound, and we’d encourage every practice to read it.
The concerns are real. Some solutions require practices to port their phone number away from their contracted telephony provider, creating gaps in NHS data reporting and unexpected call costs. Others may not meet the clinical safety and information governance standards the NHS requires – DTAC, DCB0129, ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials.
NHS England is right to flag these risks. The market has moved quickly, and not every new entrant has been built with NHS BPF contract compliance at its core.
Virtual Care Navigator is different.
We are a founder member of the Better Purchasing Framework. We do not port practice numbers or replace existing telephony infrastructure. We work alongside a practice’s contracted phone system, meaning NHS data extraction and BPF reporting obligations remain fully intact. No conflict, no workaround, no compliance risk.
We also ensure that all existing business continuity platforms are maintained, and vulnerable patient routing from the BPF phone system is intact, ensuring that we don’t leave the most vulnerable 20% of patients behind in the rush to serve the other 80% more swiftly.
We’ve been building virtual receptionist technology for the NHS for over 20 years – shaped by decades of real NHS workflows, clinical safety requirements, and primary care realities that newer, commercial-origin platforms are still learning. That experience also means we’re a fraction of the cost of newer start-up solutions that are still recovering the expense of building from scratch.
What actually helps
Intelligent triage at the point of first contact – before a call reaches a receptionist – changes the shape of demand rather than just absorbing it. Our AI agent, AiMEE, does exactly that: listening to patients, understanding their need, and guiding them to the right outcome automatically.
One capability that sets Virtual Care Navigator apart is full integration with the Electronic Prescription Service. Patients can request repeat prescriptions by phone, 24 hours a day, with requests going directly into the GP’s inbox for electronic signing. For most practices, repeat prescription calls make up a significant slice of daily inbound volume – removing that from the queue has an immediate, measurable impact on capacity.
There’s one further point worth making, and it’s one that doesn’t get discussed enough. As a BPF supplier ourselves, we understand how important it is that NHS England’s data extractions remain accurate and complete across every practice. That data isn’t just an administrative exercise – it’s how the NHS evidences the true scale of demand in general practice. If contact volumes are being handled outside of systems that feed into national reporting, that demand becomes invisible. And when funding decisions are made on the basis of incomplete data, every practice loses out. Getting the infrastructure right isn’t just about compliance today; it’s about making sure general practice is properly represented when it matters most.
A final thought
Same-day access is achievable. The practices already delivering it well have invested in two things: the right infrastructure, and a triage process that starts before the phone even rings.
The 2026/27 contract is pushing every practice toward that model. We think that’s right. We just want to make sure the conversation about how to get there is as loud as the conversation about where we’re going – and that when practices choose a technology partner, they choose one that’s built within the NHS. Not adapted to it.
To find out how Virtual Care Navigator can help your practice meet the demands of the new contract, get in touch.
[email protected] | 0330 058 4004 | think-healthcare.co.uk