GP Websites
A GP practice with a good accessible and inclusive website ensures that all their patients can access important information and services online. This makes healthcare more accessible and inclusive for patients with disabilities or impairments and helps to make a patient’s journey to accessing services more seamless which can improve patient engagement and satisfaction.
All GP practices are required to have an up-to-date and informative online presence, with key information being available as standardised metadata for other platforms to use, for example, the Access to Service Information (A2SI) Directory of Services Standard).
Practice websites should also meet the NHS England recommended standards, their contractual obligations and the government accessibility standards by ensuring they are compliant with W3C to help make sure online public services are accessible to all users, including those with disabilities.
All existing websites are obliged to be fully compliant with the standard WCAG 2.1 AA no later than 23 September 2020. See attached for more information W3C web accessibility initiative webpage
GP websites should help patients navigate to the following tasks easily, which research has shown are the top 8 tasks patients look for on practice websites. Encouraging patients to complete these tasks on a website can help save GP practice time by reducing the need for administrative support. These tasks are:
- make, change or cancel an Appointment
- get a repeat prescription
- get a sick note for work
- get test results
- register with/join the practice
- get the practice phone number
- find out the practice opening times
- find the practice address
Please see below some top tasks for website suppliers. Implementing ‘Fix the six’ measures will help to address the most common accessibility design flaws, and a recommended good place to start is for GP practices to ask their website supplier if their design templates support the following most common accessibility design flaws:
Colour & contrast: Using NHS colours increases patient confidence in a GP practice website. In addition to this poor colour contrast can make websites less accessible for people with visual impairments.
Missing Alt text: If ALT text is missing from a website people using a screen reader to navigate a website will not understand the context of any visuals.
Empty links: An Empty Link means that one of the links present on the web page is empty or contains no text describing where the link will go if clicked or triggered.
Missing form input labels: If online forms do not have labels for their input fields people using a screen reader to navigate a website will not know what information should be input into each section.
Empty buttons: An Empty Button means that one of the buttons present on the web page is empty or contains no text describing the function of the button. Or, if it’s an image button, the image contained in the button is missing alternative text.
Missing document language: Missing document language means that the document has not been marked with an HTML language tag and assistive devices will not know what language the document is in.
GP practices should prioritise making sure their website is highly usable and accessible before starting social media.
Further Guidance
- GP practices should collaborate with their Primary Care Network and Integrated Care Board to identify major website suppliers in the area
- work with suppliers directly, ask how they are meeting the guidance in ‘Creating a highly usable and accessible website‘ ensuring the practice is working from the latest templates
- ask the suppliers to update the ‘written content pages’ (section 5) and structure the site first, then
- amend locally with PCN service details before upload,
- discuss opportunities with PCN and ICB to develop a platform that accommodates all practice needs if the current supplier is not able to do so.
- host a marketplace to see what’s available; compare features, support and prices
- encourage PPGs or other local Healthwatch groups to support to ensure there is collaboration
Resources