Every patient will be able to book electronically from 2005

It follows the decision by ministers to award the �64.5m contract to run the scheme to a company called SchlumbergerSema.

Under the scheme, the first patients will be able to book hospital appointments online by next summer. It will be available across England by the end of 2005.

According to ministers, patients will be able to choose the hospital they want to be treated and the date of their appointments.

Choose dates

Electronic booking aims to speed up the entire process of booking hospital appointments for NHS patients.

Instead of writing letters to hospital consultants, GPs should be able to discuss and decide on a date with their patient in their surgery.

With electronic booking, patients will be able to choose their appointments Health Secretary John Reid

Ministers believe the scheme will help to make the NHS more patient-focused.

They also hope it will deliver savings, with fewer patients deciding to miss their appointments because they are not at times that suit.

Health Secretary John Reid said: "Electronic booking will mean that when patients are seeing their GPs they will be able to choose, from a menu of options, which hospital they would like to attend at a date to suit them.

"Electronic booking will take away the uncertainty and anxiety of waiting, sometimes weeks, to be sent an appointment in the post which may not be suitable for the patient," he said.

"With electronic booking, patients will be able to choose their appointments convenient to them so that it fits in around family or work commitments."

Richard Granger, director general of NHS IT, said: "The electronic booking programme will bring substantial benefits to patients and to people working in the NHS.

"It will modernise the way patients receive their appointments when being referred by their GP."

GP doubts

However, GPs say the scheme sounds better than it actually is.

"It is great in theory but it doesn't work in practise," said Dr Grant Kelly of the British Medical Association.

He said there was not enough spare capacity in NHS hospitals to allow patients to pick and choose times and dates.

"This is not scheduled booking. Patients will be offered an appointment in four months or six months. But it's not like booking an airline ticket.

"The problem remains that there is too high demand from patients and too little supply of appointments."

The government is spending billions of pounds on improving IT in the NHS.

Ministers want to use computers to improve efficiency across the health service.

This includes enabling doctors to view patient records online and issue repeat prescriptions for patients electronically.

The Liberal Democrats said the system was long overdue.

"Sick people need to know how soon they will be treated, where and by whom for their peace of mind," said Evan Harris, its health spokesman.