DOCTORS can now give patients details of hospital appointments immediately, thanks to a new computer system.

The technology, now in 90 per cent of East Lancashire's GP practices, means people will no longer have to wait several days for details to arrive by post.

Before, the GP would write to the hospital, which would write to the patient giving them an appointment time.

Recently, patients were given the choice of booking by phone but advances in IT mean the process is now done in minutes at the surgery, chiefs said.

This week the last hospital departments to begin booking their appointments this way went online. It means patients now have a choice of when and where to have their first outpatient hospital appointment.

A spokesman for East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust said: "This reduces the administrative burden and, by putting the patient in control of the date and time of their appointment and should reduce the number of patients who fail to attend."

He added: "The system involves the GP or member of the practice team showing the patient a range of available slots. The patient chooses a convenient date and time and can be booked into that slot there and then."

To date more than 900 people have booked their appointment this way in East Lancashire, he said.

One of the first patients to use the new service was Nicola Sullivan of Briercliffe who said: "It was definitely a quicker system and much more convenient. Previously when I had outpatient appointments they were sent through the post some time after I'd seen the GP."

Patients can still book their appointment after leaving the surgery by phone or over the internet, said Keeley Roberts, booking and choice manager at East Lancashire NHS Primary Care Trust. She said: "We are pleased that patients are benefiting from this speedy process."

The British Medical Association has raised concerns about the system, which is being rolled out across the country, alongside a scheme which gives patients a choice of which hospitals to go to.

It said it would see appointments booked on availability rather than how ill the patient was and took power away from hospital doctors who were best suited to make that choice.