Use remote consultation drive to ask what’s the best way to respond to each patient, every time

Commenting in Digital Health News about the Government’s drive for GP consultations to take place remotely “unless there’s a compelling reason not to”, DHC Director says this should be about “asking what’s the best way to respond to each patient, for every encounter”.

“In many circumstances, the best option for both the GP and the patient will be a remote consultation. Other times, it will be face-to-face either in the surgery or a home visit.

“To realise this vision, we need to get better at triaging, signposting patients and making the full range of consultation types easily available.”

Research from the DHC suggests “we have a long way to go to make digital triaging easily visible”.

“For example, services are often hard to find or missing from GP websites. Similarly, while some GPs are struggling with DIY approaches, specialist video consultation providers bring expertise in smoothly running remote consultations, which lead to more effective and efficient consultations and a better experience for all”

Read the full article here.