Patients shun video in favour of telephone and messaging

Data shared with HSJ by primary care IT suppliers shows face-to-face consultations have dwindled as patients are either staying away from health services or accessing care remotely.

However, the majority accessing care remotely are using telephones or online requests, rather than video consultations.

The NHS has urged GPs to obtain video consultation systems and has celebrated that more than 90 per cent of practices are now offering video appointments.

Primary care fundamentally transformed at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, from a service largely focused on face-to-face provision to one largely conducted remotely.

The online consultation system askmyGP has recorded an increase in demand for telephone consultations, from around a third of appointment requests in the week of 2 March to 57 per cent in the week of 11 May. Fewer than 1 per cent of requests were for video consultations.

There was also an increase in the number of patients requesting consultations over online messaging, and increasingly electing to send their GP an attachment – usually a still photograph.

EMIS, a major supplier of clinical systems to GPs, has also reported a substantial increase in telephone and digital appointments.

Although its proportion of appointments over video increased in March and April, the firm suggested they only accounted for up to 3 per cent of the total.

The “biggest issue” with video is connectivity problems, said Shaun O’Hanlon, the company’s chief medical officer.

“It doesn’t give sufficient value to the clinicians sufficient many times for it to be wholescale replacing the telephone,” he added. “For some patients, it’s of great value, for the majority the phone is as much value without the hassle of getting a video up and running.”

“The other big boon has been the use of online tools such as e-consult or the EMIS online triage platforms where patients have self-served or they’ve self-served back to the practice and the practice has given them advice without needing to have any contact other than through an online form.” He said about 40 per cent of patients are accessing care through that method.

TPP, which provides the widely used SystemOne clinical management system, provided HSJ with data showing video consultations increased to 53,000 in March and April 2020 compared to 7,000 in the same months in 2019. The use of telephone appointments over the same period increased from 3 million to almost 6 million.

GPs have said demand is starting to increase, with some suggesting it was returning to pre-covid levels. However, many across the NHS and primary care believe the current vogue for remote consultation will become a fixture as it will be necessary for clinicians to provide care while also maintaining effective infection control measures for many months to come.