Furious Health Secretary Wes Streeting ​raged at the militant GP’s union threatening to strike, saying it is ​now easier to book a haircut than see a doctor. He blasted the BMA - which led the five day resident doctors walkout in July - for opposing plans to be available online for the duration of their working hours for non-urgent appointment requests and medication queries.

Mr Streeting said those in need of a doctor should be able to contact their surgery online. The BMA says it could become a "critical patient safety issue". From Wednesday, GP surgeries in England will be required to keep their online consultation tool open for the duration of their shifts. The change was announced by the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England in February as part of the new GP contract for 2025/26 in a bid to end the 8am lottery for appointments. The BMA has threatened strike action, fearing the "floodgates will open" and surgeries will be bombarded with spurious requests.

In a stinging rebuke of the BMA’s heel-dragging, Mr Streeting said: "It is absurd that in 2025 many patients can’t request appointments online. If you can book a hair appointment online, you should be able to book an NHS appointment too.

"Many GPs are already offering this service, and now it will be provided to patients across the country. This move - which the BMA agreed to - will support GPs to care for their patients who need non-urgent care. We have agreed clear safeguards, where patients will be directed to phone up or attend in person for urgent appointments. The BMA knows this.

"This extra service for patients comes alongside extra investment in general practice as we deliver on our Plan for Change. We’ve invested an extra £1.1 billion in general practice - the biggest increase in over a decade - and hired 2,000 extra GPs across England. Patient satisfaction with their GPs is on the up. We must work together to keep this momentum going.

"This government will always put the interests of patients first, and we will not stand for our NHS being held back in the analogue age.”

Changes were intended to free up GP phone lines in a bid to end the early morning scramble to see a doctor, but the BMA claims the proposals will "open the floodgates" to unmet need and inadvertently make access for patients more difficult.

Some surgeries have angered patients who are already struggling to speak to a receptionist, let alone book an appointment, by suspending online bookings - or disabling the facility altogether.

Even those who are able to book appointments on the Internet cannot always see a doctor and are instead offered consultations with a nurse or physician associate in what some patients claim is healthcare apartheid.

The BMA claimed safeguards have not been put in place and no additional staff have been brought in to manage what it said would lead to a "barrage of online requests" raising the prospect of a walkout in the latest crisis to beset the health service.

Chair Katie Bramall-Stainer said: "Imposing such changes on general practice, ignoring our repeated warnings, will do the opposite of bringing back the family doctor.

"But all is not lost – we still have time for the Government to act and meet us halfway.

"We’re exploring all our options right now. Hopefully we can find a resolution before we take it any further. I want to work with the Government and deliver an NHS that we can be even more proud of."