Now you must email your GP(doctor): Patients are told not to come to surgery, instead describe symptoms onlineDaily Mail [UK], by Sophie Borland
Patients are to be told to examine themselves at home and email their GP (doctor) with the results rather than meeting face to face.
They would send in a short message describing symptoms which would be answered by a doctor between appointments or at the end of the working day.
Those with long-term conditions such as heart failure, diabetes or lung disease could even be asked to measure their own blood pressure, glucose levels and temperature, sending the results to the surgery. Unnecessary? Ministers want to cut the number of appointments to save 1billion a year.
Ministers want to cut "unnecessary" appointments in the hope of saving up to 1billion a year while at the same time allowing GPs to devote their attention to the most seriously ill.
Thousands of patients in England have already been issued with handheld devices and asked to send in their own measurements to their surgeries. But leading doctors are worried about the ?remote? diagnosis plans and fear life-threatening illnesses will be missed.
The British Medical Association has warned that standards of care will be jeopardised and GPs will be forced to spend much of their day answering emails rather seeing patients.
In addition, the General Medical Council, the health watchdog, is opposed on the grounds that patient confidentiality could be jeopardised.
It fears that anyone could send a message to a GP pretending to be a patient, to try to tease out highly sensitive, personal information.
In November the Mail revealed government plans to introduce a national call centre for all appointment bookings to try to save money. It has since emerged that surgeries are already using operators hundreds of miles away to make bookings under a pilot scheme.
Under the latest Department of Health proposals, patients would be encouraged to email their GP with a short description of symptoms.
The doctor would send a short reply with advice or, if concerned, urge the patient to visit the surgery.
Those issued with electronic devices would email or text the results every few days to the surgery and, if a reading was abnormal, an appointment or home visit would be arranged.
The proposal states that it would be far more "cost-effective" if patients were encouraged to communicate with their doctor "remotely" rather than coming in for an appointment.
However, it refers to a pilot study carried out in Dundee, where rather than visit the surgery patients sent messages referring to possibly serious conditions. One said he was concerned about "frequent" chest palpitations. Another emailed to report being kept awake all night with "acute sickness" and shaking.
Proposals: Under Department of Health plans patients would be encouraged to email their GP with a short description of symptoms
A separate report by the think tank 2020Health, which has been seen by ministers, estimates that the NHS could save 1 billion a year if those with certain long-term conditions are encouraged to
manage their illness at home rather than visiting a GP several times a month.
The authors of this study claim that it would lead to a dramatic fall in the numbers of emergency hospital admissions as doctors would have a regular update of patients conditions and would be more likely to spot any sudden deterioration.
The Department of Health is carrying out a pilot of 6,000 patients with long-term illnesses such as heart failure and diabetes to see if they can monitor and treat their condition at home.
All have been given electronic devices to record blood pressure, heart rate, glucose levels and the measurements are sent to the surgery. The results of the trial, in Cornwall, Kent and East London, will be published in the spring.
The BMA warned that would be
only a matter of time before a serious illness is missed. Dr Laurence Buckman, chairman of its GP committee, said: "My worry is that the patient won't realise the severity of their disease and neither will the doctor as it won't have been conveyed in the message. People with a very serious chest infection might just think it's a cough."
"The safest method of dealing with patients is seeing them.
People will get worse care.
Most doctors are scared of email consultation."
Dr Buckman warned that patient confidentiality was at risk and a family member could email a GP pretending to a patient to find out information such as a mother wanting to find out if her daughter has had sexual intercourse.
Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: "There are certainly patients who will not be able to do this. It could be dangerous. The technology might give inaccurate readings."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1349908/Patients-told-come-surgery-instead-email-GP-describing-symptoms.html
