According to a plan drawn up by NHS Direct and the Department of Health, patients who want to make an appointment for a visit to general practitioners (GPs) will first have to get in touch with NHS Direct by dialling the new non-emergency medical number – 111.

The plan, which apparently has the backing of Health Secretary Andrew Lansley, will imply that call centre staff will make GP appointments for the patients remotely, with the patients getting no chance to speak to a GP receptionist directly.

With the plan largely encouraging the patients to dial one single number – 111 – to seek health advice, a diagnosis or to make an appointment with the GPs, there are concerns mounting that the plan will virtually erode the all-important relationship between patients and their family doctor’s surgery.

Noting that “a lot of people depend on the relationship they have with their GP surgery,” Joyce Robins, co-director of Patient Concern, said that the plan will particularly disappoint the “elderly people and those with long-term conditions” because “they need to feel they are speaking to someone who knows and understands them, not some anonymous call centre worker.”

Nonetheless, a trial of the new scheme is initially being launched by a consortium of 20 Surrey practices - called ESyDoc -; and the NHS Direct is reportedly also in talks with another eight consortia across England.