Majority of doctors unwilling to carry out Skype appointments

MOST hospital doctors are carrying out no video consultations, and few think they can achieve NHS ambitions to replace a third of appointments with smartphone appointments.

A survey of more than 1,120 medics across the country shows widespread reluctance to move to a “digital first” model promised by health leaders.

In January, officials pledged that within five years, one in three hospital appointments would be scrapped, with patients instead given Skype consultations or monitoring via smartphone.

But the polling by the Royal College of Physicians shows that hospital doctors have little confidence that such a radical overhaul is achievable. The survey found that despite repeated promises to introduce a digital revolution, more than 94 per cent of hospital doctors carry out no consultations via video. Four per cent said that between one and 10 per cent of appointments were carried out by video link, with just one per cent estimating that more than 10 per cent of consultations currently use this method.

The NHS long-term plan, published almost a year ago, says that within five years, one third of face-to-face appointments should be “virtual” models.

The number of outpatients appointments has gone from 54 million to 94million a year in the last decade.

When hospital doctors were asked what caseload percentage could be done by video, the most common answer was zero. Just 18 per cent thought that more than 30 per cent of appointments could have been done by video.

Dr Bod Goddard, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said: “Most doctors don’t really like computers.”

Dr Simon Eccles, deputy chief of NHSX, a joint Government-nhs unit on technology, said: “NHSX is committed to supporting clinical teams to improve access to their services.”