Only one in ten is seen by their GP face to face
‘Changes made out of necessity’ ‘Patient need must come first’
ONLY one in ten GP appointments is being carried out face to face, with the vast majority still being performed over the phone, figures show.
Despite moves to return the NHS to normal, 61 per cent of consultations are performed via a phone call.
This compares with 11 per cent which are carried out face to face, 4 per cent via an online video call such as Skype and only 2 per cent through a home visit.
The UK-wide survey by the Royal College of GPs (RCGP) found that another 16 per cent of consultations involve a ‘telephone triage’, which is when a doctor assesses a patient over the phone to decide if they need to be seen face to face.
The figures have changed dramatically since before the coronavirus pandemic, when 75 per cent of appointments were face to face and only a quarter performed virtually, over the phone or by video call.
Although GPs have been told by the NHS to treat patients remotely wherever possible since early March, there are concerns that the ongoing predominance of virtual appointments is having ‘unintended consequences’. Some patients are worried surgeries will never reopen as normal.
Health policy analysts also point out that telephone calls can miss subtle symptoms and complex conditions.
The Scottish Government said patients were ‘embracing having different options to manage their health and wellbeing’ such as video consultations.
The RCGP’s survey – which involved 859 family doctors and was carried out over the two weeks to last Wednesday – found that 6 per cent of appointments were carried out via a text or email.
If the results are representative across the UK as a whole, then patients are at present three times more likely to receive a text or email from their GP than a home visit.
Another 70 per cent of doctors said phone appointments increased their efficiency, rising to 76 per cent when asked about telephone triage.
In total, 88 per cent of doctors said their surgery was now offering video or online consultations compared with 5 per cent who provided them before the pandemic.
Professor Martin Marshall, chairman of the RCGP, said: ‘We’ve seen a remarkable shift in the way we’ve worked to allow predominantly remote working, a shift that prepandemic would have been considered aspirational at best. These changes were made out of necessity – to keep our patients and our teams safe and to help stop the spread of Covid 19 – but there is a compelling case to retain some aspects of the different ways we have been working.’
Rachel Power, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: ‘The current predominance of telephone consultation suggests the NHS is still compromising heavily on this in the interests of minimising coronavirus infection rates.
‘We support the emergency measures taken earlier in the year by the NHS, but some patients are now telling us they are concerned that their GP’s practice might never reopen fully.’
The RCGP says it is awaiting guidance from the NHS on whether it can offer more face to face appointments.
Dr Andrew Buist, chairman of the BMA Scotland GP committee, said: ‘Face to face appointments will always have a vital role to play where it is appropriate and safe for patients and staff.’
Miles Briggs, Scottish Conservative health spokesman, said: ‘While technology has been an essential help during this time, patient need must always come first.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘While no one would have wished to go through the current pandemic, it has provided opportunities for developing new ways of providing health and care.’