By the way... iPhone consultations are virtually useless

THERE aren’t enough GPs to provide the level of care patients need. If you’re one of the many people who’ve had to wait a week or more to see a GP or practice nurse, you don’t need me to tell you there’s a shortage.

So what’s the answer? Simon Stevens, the head of the NHS, thinks one solution is ‘virtual’ medicine. He’s said that in new towns and areas of high growth, patients would be able to call a doctor or a nurse on an iPhone, and have a face-to-face ‘interaction’.

The idea is that digital contact will be the main way that people interact with the health service.

But it seems to me that the people at the top, those who tell us how to run healthcare, are guilty of putting out mixed messages; in the same week that Simon Stevens announced this digital revolution, a cosmetic surgeon, Dr Mark Harrison, was struck off by the General Medical Council for prescribing Botox injections to patients he’d not actually seen (he’d spoken to the nurses who were to administer the injections).

Certainly no one can be critical of Dr Harrison’s productivity. However, potentially damaging drugs should only be prescribed after diligent and responsible assessment by a licensed medical practitioner, in other words, after due consultation. Of course, there is huge difference between general practice, where any problem of any magnitude can be presented at any moment, and the world of trivial l i ghtweight cosmetic procedures.

But I worry about how carefully the powers that be have thought through this idea of ‘virtual’ medicine — one can only assume that the NHS and the GMC are yet to talk to each other to iron out such anomalies.

Or did the Establishment hammer Dr Harrison because he ran a somewhat unseemly practice in the private sector and made wads of cash from his activities?

Digital is not, it seems, the easy answer.