Well I was right about the bombardment of doom ceasing for just one day. They are at it again, and NHS England’s £2.4 bn GP Forward View is “not nearly enough, not the right stuff and not soon enough.” Never mind, it is what it is.
Though not one of the 1700 words Shakespeare coined, “e-consultation” is centre stage and the thing that is going to transform general practice for a mere £45m. However, with no definition of what it means, I’d like to propose one, starting from the basics.
In our context, a consultation is a personal interaction between patient and clinician in order to provide medical help.
Where traditionally they have all been face to face, remote consultations can take place by telephone, video or digitally. (Letter would also fit the definition but I’ll assume there is little call for this. Even faxes are being smashed in the new modernisated NHS).
E-consultations are therefore a subtype of remote, and to hone the idea let’s look at what falls outside:
not simply booking an appointment online (no interaction)
not NHS 111 (even if it is digitised, only an algorithm, not patient-clinician)
not Skype or other video, as like telephone these are synchronous means, patient and clinician present at the same time.
not symptom checkers (not personal)
Therefore I propose:
An e-consultation is a personal interaction between patient and clinician initiated by digital means.
All very dry, and I think Shakespeare would have put it in plainer English along the lines of:
So what is an e-consultation?
Well I was right about the bombardment of doom ceasing for just one day. They are at it again, and NHS England’s £2.4 bn GP Forward View is “not nearly enough, not the right stuff and not soon enough.” Never mind, it is what it is.
Though not one of the 1700 words Shakespeare coined, “e-consultation” is centre stage and the thing that is going to transform general practice for a mere £45m. However, with no definition of what it means, I’d like to propose one, starting from the basics.
In our context, a consultation is a personal interaction between patient and clinician in order to provide medical help.
Where traditionally they have all been face to face, remote consultations can take place by telephone, video or digitally. (Letter would also fit the definition but I’ll assume there is little call for this. Even faxes are being smashed in the new modernisated NHS).
E-consultations are therefore a subtype of remote, and to hone the idea let’s look at what falls outside:
Therefore I propose:
An e-consultation is a personal interaction between patient and clinician initiated by digital means.
All very dry, and I think Shakespeare would have put it in plainer English along the lines of:
The patient seeks help from their GP online.
It’s much more fun to have a go.
You can try an askmyGP demo as a patient:
askmyGP demo
I’m interested in your views on the definitions and demos – please comment below
Harry Longman
What you can read next
Happier GPs?
The Flaw of Averages
Making it easier for patients (shock!)