Pressure is building on Derbyshire GPs with some practices receiving 600 virtual appointment requests a night.

And one Swadlincote doctor says his practice has received 180 calls in one day.

In a meeting of the Derby and Derbyshire Clinical Commissioning Group today (June 3), health officials said the increased ability for patients to contact GPs via text or online, often through sending photos, has seen demand and pressure surge.

They stress that this has both positive and negative results: Pleasing that more people are coming forward with concerns but aware of the stress and strain it places on staff who have been stretched for some time.

Dr Buk Dhadda, a GP at Swadlincote Surgery, said, through a message sent on the virtual trust board meeting chat, that 180 of his patients rang the centre's on-call service on a single day.

He said this represented 1.2 per cent of the surgery's entire patient base and, if extrapolated to the whole of Derbyshire, would be the equivalent of 10,000 people turning up at A&E in one day.

Dr Emma Pizzey, a GP at Littlewick Medical Centre in Ilkeston, told the meeting that she and her colleagues are carrying out 10 to 20 per cent more appointments than before the pandemic.

Dr Avi Bhatia, a GP at Moir Medical Centre in Long Eaton, and CCG chair, said: "Some practices are receiving 600 e-consults (messages and emails for virtual appointments) in one night.

"Sometimes you can respond with an opinion and you can help, and sometimes with an e-consult you need to be saying 'actually, we need to see you face-to-face' so sometimes it is a bit of triage instead of a consultation."

Dr Bhatia said it needs to be more clearly communicated what the virtual service is for and is not for, and that it may not always be possible to provide a view on a condition or symptom over the phone, email or through photos.

Dr Pizzey said: "It is not a way of bypassing reception and getting a shortcut to an appointment.

"We are really conscious that we are not discriminating against people that can't use the electronic systems and people that still use the phone are not being made to wait longer for an appropriate medical opinion.

"I would like to think we are offering an equal service for all."

A report discussed at today's meeting, brought by Dr Bhatia, said March 2021 saw 40,000 more GP appointments carried out in Derbyshire than in March 2020.

The report says that in March, 53 per cent of GP appointments were for the same day they were requested and 56 per cent were face-to-face.

It says: "We know that access to your GP is very important for our patients and following the pandemic, we are seeing an increasing expectation for more face to face appointments.

"Throughout the pandemic, GP consultations were nearly all delivered virtually but we are quickly restoring a level of balance whilst applying the learning from delivering services in more innovative ways.

"Our plea is that if any of our patients have symptoms that worry them, or could indicate something serious, they should call us without delay and we will respond.

"However our further message is to request that patients please choose the most appropriate service for their condition and these include self-care, pharmacy, NHS 111 plus other services rather than phoning your GP as an automatic first option."