If your practice website runs on My Surgery Website, you will already know the news: the service, run by FPM Group, is winding down. Letters and emails have been going out, dates have been set, and several hundred practices now have a decision to make that most of them never expected to think about.
This post is a plain summary for practice managers: the dates that matter, what happens if you do nothing, and a checklist for making the move an orderly one, wherever you choose to move.
The two dates that matter
Instruct MSW by
1 September 2026
If My Surgery Website looks after your practice domain (the web address patients type to reach you), tell MSW where that domain should go by this date. If no instruction is given, the domain’s administration transfers under MSW’s own arrangements.
Service ends
31 March 2027
MSW’s final service end date: the point at which the platform stops running altogether. Everything about your next website needs to be settled well before this.
One important caveat: these are the headline dates as MSW has communicated them. Your own agreement sets your exact dates and notice terms, so the first practical step is always to dig out your paperwork and check what applies to your practice specifically.
Why the domain deadline matters more than the shutdown
It is tempting to look at March 2027 and file this under “next year’s problem”. The domain instruction date is the one that bites first, and it matters because your domain is your practice’s front door. It is printed on repeat prescriptions, saved in patients’ bookmarks, linked from the NHS website and indexed by search engines. Losing control of where it points, even temporarily, means patients knocking on a door that no longer opens.
Instructing MSW where the domain should go is a small administrative act, but it is the difference between a seamless changeover and an avoidable gap in patient access.
Do nothing, and the
choice is made for you.
A practice manager’s checklist
Six things worth doing this month, whichever provider you end up with:
Find your MSW agreement.
Confirm your exact end date, notice requirements and what happens to your data and domain under its terms.
Establish who controls your domain.
Is it registered to the practice, or administered by MSW on your behalf? If it is the latter, the 1 September instruction applies to you.
Take an inventory of your content.
Pages, policies, PDFs, staff lists, opening hours, patient notices. A simple list now makes any migration faster and safer later.
Note your integrations.
Online consultation links, appointment systems, prescription ordering, any forms patients rely on. These need to work from day one on whatever comes next.
Choose your next provider well before September.
Not because building takes months (it should not), but because deciding under deadline pressure rarely produces good decisions.
Instruct MSW in writing.
Once you know where you are going, tell MSW where the domain should point, and keep a copy of the instruction.
What to look for in whatever comes next
Wherever you move, the requirements on a GP practice website do not change with the provider. The things worth checking before you sign anything:
NHS familiarity
A provider that already builds against NHS England's benchmarking expectations, rather than learning them on your website.
Accessibility as standard
WCAG 2.2 AA is the baseline public sector websites are measured against, not an optional extra.
A managed migration
Your content moved for you, your site live throughout, and no downtime for patients at go-live.
Ongoing development and UK support
A website that keeps improving after launch, with people who answer when the practice needs them.
Where we stand
We should be straightforward about our interest: Tree View Designs is one of the providers practices can move to. We have built and supported GP practice websites since 2009, more than 1,000 surgeries, primary care networks and federations across England run on our platform, and moving practices between providers is one of the things we do most, with the whole switch handled for you and no downtime for patients.
Weighing up your options?
Two easy places to start, no obligation attached to either: a free audit of your current website, scored against NHS England’s benchmarking tool, WCAG 2.2, reading age, speed and security, checked by a person, report within one working day. Or simply talk to us about your move.
However you proceed, the advice is the same: check your dates, secure your domain, and decide before the deadline decides for you.
