Responding to the HSSIB report Workforce and patient safety:
digital tools for online consultation in general practice,
Nuffield Trust Senior Fellow Dr Rebecca Rosen said:
“The findings by HSSIB are welcome and echo findings from the
Remote by Default 2 study
[1] that show online consultations are not a one size fits all
solution for all patients. The current arrangements for online
consultations have been welcomed by many patients but there is
evidence they can deter others and put some patients at clinical
risk.
“Providing online consultations safely and to a high standard
requires careful design and implementation by practices and a
clear focus on identifying which patients may struggle with
remote and online consultations and put in place mitigations for
those. Getting this right at pace is a challenge when all
staff in general practice are already overloaded with work, but
it is essential if we are to make safe and effective use of
digital technology in general practice.”
In addition, Dr Rebecca Payne, lead author of the BMJQS paper
Patient safety in remote primary care encounters said:
“The paper highlights an urgent need to improve training for
staff at assessing whether patients can undertake online
consultations and in making safe clinical assessments.
“Digital tools are already in widespread use whether for
requesting appointments or for triaging appointments based on
need. If these systems are configured poorly or staff feel
inadequately trained to assess whether patients are suitable for
digital tools and online consultation this can lead to harms for
some patients.”
Ends.
Notes to editor:
[1] The Remote by Default 2 study is funded by the National
Institute for Health Research. The study is led from
the University of Oxford, with joint Chief
Investigators Trish
Greenhalgh and Sara Shaw.
They are working with University of
Plymouth (Richard
Byng), Nuffield
Trust (Rebecca
Rosen) and Thrive by
Design, an in-house NHS consultancy with
expertise in the co-design of inclusive digital transformation of
health and care services (Roz
Davies).
