Got your webcam ready? The doc will see you now
Hospital trust among the first to trial video consultations
Patients in west Kent will be offered appointments with hospital doctors from the comfort of their own home - or even at work or school - through a Skype-style video consultation.
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells is one of only nine NHS trusts in England that have been selected to pilot the virtual service, which will allow people with certain medical complaints to ‘attend’ appointments remotely using a computer or mobile device. Sexual health, specialist medicine and emergency department services will all test the system, with the first clinics due to start in the next few weeks.
If successful, it could be rolled out more widely in other departments and trusts nationwide. Demonstrations and engagement events were held in both Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells over the last fortnight, attended by nurses, doctors, GPs, commissioners, IT and procurement bosses as well as representatives from the local prison service. The aim, health chiefs say, is to reduce the need for patients to travel to the hospital and take time off work or school.
Suitable patients will be offered the opportunity over the coming weeks, but are not obliged to accept, and can still take up a face-to-face appointment if preferred. Those who do opt for a video consultation will need a reliable internet connection, webcam and microphone to use the service on their favoured device.
The trust is also being asked to plan how it will work with clinical commissioning groups and GPs to offer online consultations in each practice by April 2020 and routine video appointments by April 2021.
Last year a virtual GP surgery, called MedicSpot, opened within a pharmacy on the Isle of Sheppey. Said to be the first of its kind in Kent, it enables patients to not only speak to a doctor but also be examined using digital equipment hooked up to the computer.