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Daily Express: End of the Doctor's Surgery

Firestormm

Senior Member
Messages
5,055
Location
Cornwall England
A sensational headline I have no doubt, but still, this is happening...
Sunday November 25,2012
By Ted Jeory

A BID to save nearly £3billion by slashing face-to-face appointments with a doctor and treating patients via computer will put lives at risk, ministers were warned last night.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is planning a technological revolution that could spell the end of the traditional doctor’s surgery.

A new system of “virtual clinics” is being planned in which GPs connect with patients via iPads and Skype, an idea that NHS bosses are importing from India.

The reforms would save £2.9billion “almost immediately” and improve the lives of most patients, for example by avoiding the need to find child care during appointments, Health Minister Dr Dan Poulter said last week.

However, critics are concerned the initiative would create a two-tier NHS in which the less technologically able, particularly the elderly, would be left behind.

Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham called the plan “dangerous”, while Age UK said cutting the number of personal appointments would erode the vital trust between doctor and patient.

The ideas , contained in a Health Department report called Digital First, include arming community nurses with iPads in rural areas and making more use of Skype video calling between GPs and patients. There will be more online assessments “augmented” with video calls.

Mobile phone “apps” will be used to access lab reports and health records and negative test results will be sent by text messages rather than delivered in person. Mr Hunt, who made a fortune by creating an internet company, believes that while mobile broadband technology is revolutionising most walks of life, there is a problem once people encounter the relatively antiquated systems of the NHS.

The Government is trying to fill a £20billion NHS funding gap and health chiefs want to reduce “needless” appointments that clog up staff time.

Patients would be encouraged not to attend GPs’ surgeries, firstly by telephone assessments and then by video links. NHS bosses have been examining practices in India where video-conferencing has proved successful with some patients.

In a Westminster debate last week, Dr Poulter said 15 million people with long-term conditions accounted for 70 per cent of all in-patient beds. “Many such hospital stays could be avoided through better management, including the better use of mobile technologies, to prevent people from becoming so unwell in the first place that they need to be admitted to hospital.

“We need to harness and better utilise more modern types of technology such as telehealth and mobile technology to support people better in their own homes and to drive down the cost of care.

“About one-third of patients do not necessarily need a face-to-face GP appointment.” In a statement to the Sunday Express , he stated: “It is important to stress that patients who are unwell and need to see their GP will still always have quality face-to-face time with them.

“The Government also recognises that not everyone, particularly frail older people, will have easy access to the internet.”

However, Age UK’s boss Michelle Mitchell warned: “Many people of all ages still prefer human contact.
“It also gives the medical professional the chance to recognise health issues that may not be obvious from a distance.”

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: “The telehealth agenda must be driven by a desire to improve clinical outcomes and patient care, not the Government’s plans to save £20billion.”

Mr Burnham warned: “Older people who don’t have access to the internet will lose out.”

OPINION: PAGE 36 [which I can't find :thumbdown:]

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/360369/End-of-the-Doctor's-surgery/

So. What do you think about this replacing of face-to-face with technology? Tele-health has been something posited and trialled in my area among those with long term conditions. For MS I think it was.

I think that results were mixed. It's a huge sea-change for people to get used to not meeting their doctor. Mind you have you ever tried getting a GP to do a home visit these days?!!
 

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
I'd be thrilled if this was an option (so that those for which it wasn't suitable could still have as much face-to-face as they wanted).

For those of us who are bedbound or housebound, tackling GP appointments, where the expectation is that you turn up no matter what, would be great. Over the years, I've managed to get my GP to deal with me by phone. It took him five years to tell me that it's possible to email him. Huge benefit to me to be able to avoid the trip and avoid sitting in the waiting room with viral patients coughing their lovely new bugs all over me.

Big thumbs-up for me, as long as proper provision remains for face-to-face.
 

alex3619

Senior Member
Messages
13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
This technology has been used in Australia for remote communities I think. However this is for places that are hundreds of miles from a doctor's surgery, and up to a thousand miles from a specialist. We have not done this for cities. I think the claim this will make surgeries obsolete is wrong. I think however it will mean that there will be a better service to the very sick who do not get a doctor visit very often. I do think it will also reduce the distribution and size of doctor's surgeries. The consequence of that is likely to be that if you need to see a doctor face to face then you will have to travel further.

Budget cutting is typical slash and burn economic rationalism. Efficiency is good, but its only local. What happens in the entire economic system? Evidence is growing, and many economists are arguing, that the current economic policies not only wont fix our economic problems globally, they are the cause of our economic problems. Look up Steve Keen for example, who has written a book Debunking Economics and has, along with many other economists, been predicting current crises for many many years.

Bye, Alex
 

Firestormm

Senior Member
Messages
5,055
Location
Cornwall England
I'd be thrilled if this was an option (so that those for which it wasn't suitable could still have as much face-to-face as they wanted).

For those of us who are bedbound or housebound, tackling GP appointments, where the expectation is that you turn up no matter what, would be great. Over the years, I've managed to get my GP to deal with me by phone. It took him five years to tell me that it's possible to email him. Huge benefit to me to be able to avoid the trip and avoid sitting in the waiting room with viral patients coughing their lovely new bugs all over me.

Big thumbs-up for me, as long as proper provision remains for face-to-face.

One of the considerations here in Cornwall (and elsewhere too I suspect) is that relating to rurality. We have one main hospital in Truro and yet by any measurement our geography is pretty big.*

As you said Sasha for people who are unable to make an appointment that doesn't require a doctor to be physically present - then Telehealth (telephone and video and email) would be a good alternative.

If there was a distinct provision for people that better enabled a relationship to be formed with their GP and/or specialist over and above that which is not possible today by small slots in a doctor's schedule - then I'd support it.

My concern I guess is that people will be less inclined to use this technology development. That more might (if they are able) resort to the more spurious internet as a resource to self-diagnose and treat.

That the important role of a GP would be diluted (not that it hasn't been already in my view). I'd be interested to hear what the doctor's themselves have to say about it all. I mean we already have NHS Direct (or whatever it is called these days), and as you say, you can email a GP as well as obtain repeat prescriptions via the internet and have the order delivered (in my case) to our village post office.

But I do worry that this statement will mean wholesale change. Rather like the Welfare Reforms, this will mean change for all and those who cannot cope or unable to cope will not be provided for...

(* we also have to serve the community on the Isles of Scilly who use I believe Telehealth at least in part).