Good Idea or Dangerous?
NHS offers smartphone GP appointmentsSounds worth a punt to me, but large parts of the NHS seem to be having their usual reaction to change..... It's a sticking plaster for the decline in GP numbers. Or, it could be an innovative high tech solution to the increasing demand being placed on the NHS by mass immigration. The demand for GP's outstrips the supply, you can blame that on immigration if you wish. So yes this could be an innovative solution, but how many GP's would be needed to ensure it runs safely and would they be better deployed seeing patients in the flesh. This is basically the 111 Service but with more qualified medical staff who'll funnel people to different parts of the NHS or Boots. Or people will get fed up with being in a queue to speak to a GP and decide to venture to A&E instead. As happens now. The problem is a supply issue, solution - reform how GP services work and recruit more GP's. Otherwise watch the slow disintegration of GP services. Well, importing a net 300,000 people a year is going to have an impact, they will all need access to medical services, in the same way they all need houses. But then some people try and pretend immigration has got nothing to do with our housing shortage either. Ho hum.
Anyway, its much more than a 111 service who can do naff all - Doctors will be able to prescribe medication and e mail the prescription to your pharmacy to collect. And the point is, there will be no queue, you get an appointment time for the call which should be next day, so taking pressure off A&E.This IS a reform of how GP services work ! Another way to triage and sign post the patient, so the initial assessment is just being put into an app, hardly rocket science as triage is a set number questions in many cases. Video consultations have been available in my neck of the woods for some time. Again, you haven't grasped the point. This is NOT a triage, it is a full video GP appointment, if they don't need to examine you, then it saves everyone time and effort.
As it's a brand new NHS pilot, I doubt it's been available in either Wales or Syria before. No problem. I've frequently had telephone consultations or a nurse practitioner appointment where a face to face GP appointment was unnecessary - smart and effective, and this is a new and improved telephone consultation with moving pictures There is a new company operating in London (which I won't name in case anyone accuses me of owning shares, which I don't) that seems to have an interesting model which I am going to check out. My GP surgery has just down down the toilet over the last 12 months, with a minimum 2 week wait for a GP appt, it's a joke.
This company has opened a number of sites across central London where you can get a same day appointment with an NHS GP, working privately. They charge 29 quid for an appointment, plus a small admin fee for a prescription. the biggest potential drawback is that you get a private prescription of course, so have to pay for the actual cost of the drug, not the NHS £8.60 charge, so it depends on what medication you need I guess.
I so wish (although it will never happen), that the NHS operated this model. Maybe charging just a tenner for an NHS GP appointment, it would likely just cover costs taking into account collection, but I guarantee you would not have to wait 2 weeks for an appointment. Hasn't that type of thing been operating in the City for years? Wealthy clientele/patients drop in paying an extortionate (not for them) consultation fee (more like £100than £29)?