It’s been a bumpy road to launch Choose and Book, the electronic booking system that allows NHS patients to choose the date, time and place for outpatient hospital appointments. However, at least one medical centre has fallen in love with the e-booking system.

The Middlestown Medical Centre in Wakefield in West Yorkshire has been using Choose and Book since December 2005. Since then more than 300 patients have made their hospital appointments via the new service, according to the NHS.

While 300 out of 7,000 patients seems low, the NHS says that the majority of referrals from Middlestown are done with Choose and Book. (Sceptics might say that a “majority” could mean anywhere from 51 to 99 percent.)

Dr Terry Gair, one of the practice’s six GPs, sings the system’s praises. He was so enthusiastic about Choose and Book that he wrote his own manual to help his colleagues navigate the referral system.

Middlestown’s patients have enjoyed using the booking system which allows them to make a hospital appointment while they are still at the GP’s office, or at home over the phone or on the internet, according to office staff.

Middlestown is one of 18 practices in the Wakefield West Primary Care Trust area. Currently, eight other practices in the trust use Choose and Book, with plans to get the remainder on board by late spring, according to NHS.

Implementing Choose and Book has taken longer than expected – the original plan was for 250,000 first visit appointments to have been made by December 2004, but only 20,000 had been made by November 2005, reported the eGov Monitor last year.

Last moth, the membership magazine of the British Medical Association, BMA News, reported 67,820 referrals have been made by GPs in England by December 23, 2005. If all the data is reported by eGov and BMA are accurate, that would indicate a huge jump from in one month’s time.

The latest implementation goal is for 90 per cent of GP referrals to be made through the system by March 2007, according to an eGov Monitor article last month.