A GP practice is helping patients get appointments with a difference — by email.

St Gabriel's Medical Centre in Bishops Road, Sedgley, has 8,300 people on its books and there are six GPs.

A few months ago, patients told doctors they were finding it difficult to get appointments, so they came up with a clever solution.

GPs began inviting people to email them with details of their health problems and symptoms and responded offering treatment advice.

This week, the practice staff was singled out for praise by health watchdog the Care Quality Commission for offering email appointments.

In an inspection report, the CQC said the surgery was showing outstanding practice by offering patients flexible services.

The report follows an inspection on May 21.

Monitors said the service was effective, caring, response to people's needs and well led, but it needed to make improvements to paperwork related to patient safety.

This was because Disclosure and Barring Service checks had not been carried out on some staff who chaperone patients during examinations.

A spokesman for the practice was unavailable for comment.

Its website says: "Our dedicated team are here to treat those minor ailments that occur as well as providing specialist management of long-term conditions and clinics covering a wide range of healthcare issues.

"Technology also means you can now do a lot of things from the comfort of your home, such as order a repeat prescription, request or cancel an appointment, update your contact details and update your clinical record."

Though the CQC supports the use of email consultations the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) has expressed some reservations.

According to NIHR, research shows there is often a lack of consistency with how GPs and patients interact during emails.

A study conducted on behalf of NIHR concluded: "Both GPs and patients reported concerns about safety and lack of guidance about the 'rules of engagement' in email consultations, with GPs also concerned about workload.

"GPs surveyed felt there was a need for regulation and guidance."