New video link-up for GP‘visits’

Patients across Forth Valley will now be able to be seen by their doctors remotely thanks to a new online consulting system.

The‘Near Me’video consulting service was developed in 2018 and was initially used in the Highlands, where distances between patients and clinicians can make diagnosis of medical problems a key issue.

But as part of the Covid-19 response, the service is to be rolled out, with all GP practices across the country – including in Forth Valley – now equipped for Near Me.

Remote consultations are being carried out in the first instance by telephone but Near Me is used if a video link is felt to be more appropriate.

Patients offered a Near Me appointment at home will need to have a device for making a video call, such as a smartphone, tablet or computer with webcam, and a reliable internet connection.

As with any other appointment, patients must first contact their GP practice and arrange an appointment in the normal manner.

This may be by telephone, virtual or face to face.

The Scottish Government’s national clinical director, Jason Leitch, said: “Near Me is proving to be an invaluable tool in the fight against coronavirus.

“It means people can receive urgent health care and advice remotely from the safety of their own home, without exposing them or NHS clinicians to infection risk.

“It’s also possible for GPs and other clinicians to use it from their home if they are at high risk of infection.

“Near Me works exactly like a face-to-face meeting except that patients do not need to travel to see a GP.”

The service is also being touted for other uses outside of GP appointments.

NHS Forth Valley’s physiotherapy team lead, Nicky Butler, and her colleagues are now making use of the system for all consultations outside of those where face-to-face contact is absolutely necessary.

She said:“Covid-19 has completely changed the way we work but we are finding that our patients totally understand why it’s necessary to have video consultations.

“As physiotherapists, we obviously can’t touch patients but we can get them to move around so we can see their range of movement and, obviously, we can give them advice and exercises to do at home.

“At the start we thought that we would have face-to-face consultations at the first appointment but we now find that is not necessary.

“Near Me works well and we will be using it more and more as the Covid situation continues.”

General information about Near Me is available at www.nearme.scot and a short video explaining the system is available at https://www.youtube. com/