Choice Blog

Online GP service starting to look sickly

Many Choice readers seem to agree with my continuing opposition to healthcare by remote means- phone based systems for diagnosis and internet consultations.

Experience and common sense have told me that it is only when a doctor sees and talks with a patient that many health problems are properly identified.

Support for this view came when an NHS system I'd experienced- designed to cut waiting lists, save each surgery thousands of pounds and effectively keep patients at arm's length- proved a failure. Patients who had been diagnosed remotely tended to end up at the surgery afterwards, so the doctor's work was being doubled. Now the NHS is finding that an internet system, which involved patients filling in questions,about their symptoms online and having these reviewed by a doctor, has fallen flat on its face.

Only one of every 50,000 appointments carried out at surgeries operating the system was via the internet option, and of those who used it, 40 percent of patients ended up having to see a doctor afterwards. Some say the low take-up is because too few patients at surgeries offering the online diagnosis are aware it exists.

Cynics (like me!) believe that people know there is nothing to beat face-to-face contact with doctors who are trained to pick up subtle clues that help them get to the root of health problems. 

The NHS has put £45m into steering people towards online consultations. the decision-makers should stop pretending that this is in the interests of the patient. It's an unsatisfactory compromise and I doubt whether it will even achieve what it is set out to do (save money and time).

One patient wrote to a national newspaper recently saying that when he approached his surgery for an appointment, he was offered a phone consultation. He said: "I am now trying to imagine the contortions need if a smartphone picture is involved, as I believe I might have haemorrhoids."

What do you think of Online GP services? Do you disagree with Neil? 

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