Highlights
- Survey of 926 older people shows strong demand for face-to-face GP visits among over-75s.
- Report warns digital-first care may increase loneliness in older patients.
- Only one in ten over-75s use online booking, as access shifts away from phones and reception.
The report, Care On Hold, found that the loss of family doctors and the erosion of face-to-face care had contributed to growing feelings of loneliness, rejection and inadequacy among older patients.
Re-engage, which works to tackle loneliness in old age, described the digital-first approach as "dehumanising" and said it was leaving vulnerable people feeling "excluded" from a system they depend on.
More than two-thirds of those surveyed said they prefer to book GP appointments by phone. One in five walk in to speak to someone at reception. Just one in ten use online systems.
Yet one in three reported being directed to online forms, with some told to choose between a web form or an AI-operated phone line.
Bill, 81, from the North West, was turned away when he tried to book in person and spent an hour navigating two separate online accounts with his daughter's help. "If I had to do it myself, I'd have given up," he told The Telegraph.
His daughter warned that not everyone has family support to fall back on.
Isolation grows deeper
For some, the barriers have gone far beyond inconvenience. Doris, 95, from Hastings, went three years without a GP appointment until her surgery contacted her for a routine annual review.
Jenny Willott, chief executive of Re-engage, said the findings pointed to a deeper problem than digital access alone. "Many older people are being pushed toward digital routes they cannot easily use.
At the same time there is strong and consistent demand among people aged 75 and over to be able to see a GP face to face," she told The Telegraph.
"Digital tools and AI can play a role, but they cannot replace human contact, which is often a vital lifeline for older people who are lonely or socially isolated.
When access to in-person care is reduced, some older people feel increasingly cut off from the support they rely on," she added.
Dennis Reed of Silver Voices said older patients increasingly felt the NHS no longer wanted to treat them. "So many barriers to access are put in our way, including complex online forms, automated answering systems and unintelligible bots," he told The Telegraph.
The NHS maintained that online booking was intended to complement, not replace, traditional methods and that all practices remained contractually required to accept phone and in-person appointments.
