What software do care coordinators use in NHS GP practices?
There are no software tools that are broadly used in NHS primary care specifically for care coordinators. That is, in itself, a significant problem. Most care coordinators in GP practices work across a combination of their clinical system (EMIS or SystmOne), a generic SMS tool, and spreadsheets, none of which were designed for the coordination role. A small but growing number of practices are now adopting purpose-built care coordination platforms that integrate directly with their clinical system and automate the patient identification, outreach, and outcome tracking that currently falls to the coordinator to manage manually, contact by contact, day by day.
The care coordinator role: what it actually involves
The care coordinator role carries a weight that is easy to underestimate from the outside. At its core, the job is to hold patients (particularly those with multiple long-term conditions) within a system that was not designed to hold them. General practice is mostly structured around discrete consultations between a clinician and a patient. The care coordinator works in the space between those consultations: tracking who is due for a review, chasing who has not responded, navigating referrals across community services, and trying to ensure that people with complex, overlapping needs do not fall through the gaps between one appointment and the next.
That challenge is getting harder. The number of people in England living with two or more long-term conditions has grown significantly, with the most deprived communities carrying a disproportionate share of that burden. For a care coordinator managing a patient list across a practice of 8,000 or 12,000 patients, this means an expanding pool of people who need proactive contact, personalised support, and coordinated care, and a shrinking margin for error when workload peaks, staff are absent, or a campaign does not convert.
What makes the role particularly relentless is that the tools available have not kept pace with the demand placed on the people doing it. A care coordinator identifying patients for a structured medication review, a long-term condition annual review, or a cervical screening recall will typically start their morning by running a manual search in EMIS or SystmOne, exporting a list, and beginning to work through it one patient at a time. The process is repetitive, prone to interruption, and almost entirely manual. When a coordinator is off sick or leaves the practice, the caseload they were managing might only exist in a spreadsheet on their desktop, if it has been maintained at all.
The reliance on general-purpose tools is not a reflection of poor practice management. It reflects the absence of anything better that was designed for NHS primary care, integrates with NHS clinical systems, and is accessible to the practices that need it most.
The tools care coordinators currently use (and where they fall short)
Clinical systems (EMIS, SystmOne)
Essential for accessing patient records and recording outcomes. Not built for population-level coordination. Running searches for overdue patients, managing follow-up sequences, and tracking who has and has not been contacted requires significant manual effort and, in many practices, specialist knowledge of the search module that not all coordinators have.
SMS tools (most commonly AccuRx)
Widely used for individual patient messaging and quick clinical communications. Effective for one-to-one contact, but not designed to manage outreach sequences at scale, track response rates across a cohort, or feed outcomes back into the coordination workflow automatically.
Spreadsheets
The most common caseload management tool in use. Coordinators maintain their own trackers to record who has been contacted, what the outcome was, and what follow-up is needed. This creates significant risks: no visibility for supervisors or managers, no continuity when the coordinator is absent, and no structured record that can be handed off or audited.
Generic task and inbox tools
Some practices use shared Outlook inboxes or task lists for handoffs between coordinators and clinical staff. These are functional but carry no patient context, no prioritisation logic, and no link back to the clinical record.
What a purpose-built care coordination platform does differently
A platform built specifically for NHS care coordination should change this workflow at its foundation rather than adding another tool to an already fragmented stack.
Patient identification runs automatically from live clinical system data, surfacing the patients who are due, overdue, or approaching a threshold, without requiring the coordinator to run a manual search. Outreach runs in a structured sequence across channels: an SMS or NHS App notification first, followed by a letter or telephone call for non-responders, with the sequence continuing automatically rather than depending on the coordinator to pick it back up.
Outcomes are recorded against individual patients and visible to the whole team. Managers see a live view of caseload status and throughput. The workflow runs continuously, including when staff are absent. And critically, the coordination loop closes: the platform knows who has been contacted, who responded, who booked, and who attended, and surfaces the residual list for targeted follow-up rather than starting from scratch. The care coordinators' role becomes one of ensuring that patients do not fall through the cracks and using those skills that are uniquely human at the point where they would add the most value.
What to look for when evaluating care coordinator software
If you are evaluating tools for your care coordinators, the following questions will separate platforms that are genuinely built for NHS primary care from those that are not.
Does it integrate directly with your clinical system?
Integration with EMIS and SystmOne, ideally via SPINE, NHS IM1, Partner APIs and GPConnect, to ensure that patient data is accessible across a PCN, current and that outcomes can be coded back into the clinical record automatically, without the coordinator doing it separately. Integration should also extend to GPConnect, which enables booking into capacity outside the practice itself, including extended access hubs and PCN appointment slots. Without GPConnect integration, a coordinator identifying a patient for an evening or weekend appointment at a hub has to step outside the platform to complete the booking manually.
Does it understand what the practice can actually deliver?
A platform that identifies 300 patients for a clinical review is only useful if the practice has the appointment capacity to see them. Good coordination software surfaces the available clinical slots alongside the eligible patient cohort, so the coordinator is not generating demand the practice cannot meet. Inviting patients for care that cannot be booked promptly creates confusion, erodes trust, and generates rework.
Does it tell you what a patient needs holistically, not just for one condition?
Patients with multiple long-term conditions are often eligible for several types of care simultaneously. A coordinator viewing a patient only through the lens of one recall campaign will miss that the same patient is also overdue for a medication review, a blood pressure check, or a health check. The best platforms surface a complete view of what a patient is currently due for across all relevant care categories, so a single coordinated contact can cover multiple needs at once.
Does it look ahead, not just at today's outstanding list?
Timing matters in care coordination. A patient who is not due for a review today might become due in three weeks. A slight delay to invite them in a few weeks' time, so that both care needs can be met in one encounter, is better for the patient, reduces the number of contacts the practice needs to make, and saves the coordinator time. Platforms that only surface patients who are overdue miss this anticipatory window entirely.
Does it use what has and has not worked for each patient?
If a patient has not responded to an SMS three times in a row, sending a fourth SMS is unlikely to change the outcome. Effective coordination platforms retain a history of how each patient has been contacted and what the response was, and use that to inform the next approach. This shifts the coordinator from repeating the same method and expecting a different result to making evidence-informed decisions about channel and timing. Care coordination software should be able to reach patients in the way that is most likely to be effective for the patient, not just in the way that is easiest for the care coordinator to send.
Is the data current?
Data that is 24 or more hours out of date creates real operational problems. A coordinator contacting a patient who was seen at the practice yesterday, or inviting someone who has already booked through another channel, generates duplication and the need for correction. Platforms using live or near-real-time EHR data significantly reduce this kind of rework.
Has it been through NHS information governance review?
Any tool used in a GP practice that accesses patient data must have completed NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit assessment and be compliant with relevant IG and clinical safety requirements. Confirm this before any deployment conversation progresses.
Appt Coordinate
Appt Coordinate is a care coordination platform built specifically for NHS GP practices and PCNs. It integrates directly with EMIS and SystmOne via IM1, Partner APIs, and GPConnect, automates multi-channel patient outreach, and surfaces a holistic view of each patient's care needs across conditions and care categories.
Appt Coordinate is currently deployed across 30 NHS GP practices. It has been recognised by the NHS Innovation Accelerator as a product that should be scaled across the NHS. Independent evaluation is being conducted in partnership with Prova Health and Imperial College London.
Practices using Appt Coordinate in cervical screening programmes have reported saving approximately 500 hours of care coordinator time per screening round.
To see how Appt Coordinate works in practice, visit appt-health.co.uk/products/appt-coordinate or book a demo at appt-health.co.uk/book-a-demo.
Frequently asked questions
Can care coordinators use AccuRx for coordination?
AccuRx is widely used in NHS practices and is effective for one-to-one patient messaging and clinical communications. It is not a care coordination platform. It does not manage population-level outreach sequences, surface patient cohorts from the clinical system, track response rates across a campaign, or record coordination outcomes back into the patient record automatically. For individual contacts it is a useful tool; for running structured recall or care management programmes at scale it is not sufficient on its own.
What is the difference between a clinical system and a care coordination platform?
A clinical system (EMIS, SystmOne) is built around individual consultations: recording clinical encounters, managing prescriptions, and holding the patient's medical record. A care coordination platform is built around population workflows: identifying which patients need proactive contact, managing the outreach sequence, tracking outcomes across a cohort, and surfacing a live view of caseload status. The two are complementary. A coordination platform integrates with the clinical system to pull patient data and write outcomes back, but it operates at a different level of the workflow.
How many care coordinators work in NHS primary care?
Over 6,000 care coordinators have been deployed into NHS primary care networks through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme since 2020. The ARRS scheme funds these roles at the PCN level, and care coordinators represent one of the largest non-clinical ARRS workforce categories in primary care.
What does NHS GPConnect integration mean for a care coordinator?
GPConnect is an NHS Digital API that allows accredited platforms to access appointment slots and book patients into services beyond the host practice, including extended access hubs and PCN-wide appointment capacity. For a care coordinator, this means being able to book a patient into an evening or weekend appointment at a hub from within the coordination workflow, rather than having to direct the patient to call a separate number or stepping outside the platform to complete the booking. It is a meaningful operational difference for practices running proactive care programmes at PCN level.
Does care coordinator software need to be NHS-approved?
Any software that accesses NHS patient data must complete NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) assessment. Platforms integrating with EMIS or SystmOne via IM1 or Partner APIs must also be accredited by the relevant clinical system supplier with a DCB0160. GPConnect-enabled tools require NHS England accreditation. Always verify these credentials before deploying any tool in a practice environment.
