As part of the controversial plan to reduce waiting times, patients will have to take a virtual NHS appointment.
NHS chiefs have announced that video and phone consultations will be more popular as part of an effort to reduce wait times of over 18 months.
As part of the plans, trusts with the biggest backlog of outpatient appointments — like post-operation follow-ups — will be paired with hospitals with spare capacity.
Patients in England, however, will be informed that they can visit a doctor quicker if they agree to a remote appointment.
Patient groups called it a’very dangerous’ practice to “palm off” patients via virtual visits. Remote consultations could lead to doctors not being able to spot serious illness signs.
Campaigners claim this applies especially to vulnerable patients such as those suffering from dementia who might struggle with remote communication.
In May, data showed that the NHS backlog in routine care grew to 6.6million from 6.4million. This means that one eighth of England’s population is now in wait for elective treatment, sometimes in pain.
To reduce wait time, hospitals were instructed to give priority to first consultations over routine second ones.
The NHS’ Covid recovery program will virtually eliminate 18-month waiting times by next spring. Patients won’t have to wait more than one year until March 2025.
Sir James Mackey is the NHS England’s elected recovery advisor. He said that focusing on digital options will offer alternatives to people who have been waiting for too long.
Sir James told the Health Service Journal: ‘We will be pairing up organisations so that organisations with capacity can help those with the biggest challenges, from a virtual outpatient perspective.’
Patients who still need to be seen by an outpatient physician for advice, diagnosis and follow-up after surgery or specialist advice are part of the NHS backlog. This number is currently 6.6 million.
However, doctors claim that only a fifth (or more) of their outpatient appointments don’t have to be done in person.
This is part of an overall move towards digitalization to increase capacity.
In order to reduce time and save resources, the 2019 NHS Long Term plans stated that a quarter of all face-to–face outpatient appointments will be made digitally by 2024.
Sir Jim also said: “There’s still much to be done.” [on virtual outpatients], we’re going to be testing the concept… We need to work through how all the wiring and plumbing needs to work.
“For instance, what happens to a patient who needs an immediate diagnostic after seeing a doctor in another area of the country?”
‘It would be great also to try and stimulate more of a consumer drive on this – encouraging patients to ask about virtual outpatients when the waits locally may be too long, so they don’t just think they have to go to their local hospital.
“I feel that this would really shift the model if done correctly.”
Dennis Reed is the director of Silver Voices, an advocacy group for people over 60. He told The Telegraph that he believes it’s dangerous to pretend to be able to take care of everyone with virtual appointments.
“You’re talking about serious medical conditions such as cancer or pain that waits for an operation on the hip or knee.
“These conditions require that you see a specialist in person. They need to perform hands-on medicine, such as to evaluate the medical problem or to determine the cause of the disability.
He advised patients who were waiting to be admitted that they should have a GP appointment so another online consultation would not delay their treatment.
Once a patient’s first appointment is completed, they can be removed from the NHS wait list.
Reed stated that the idea may have been used to’massage the numbers’ and reduce the waiting list. He said that this could lead to patients ‘forgetting the real needs’.
The latest data indicates that 6.6 million people are still waiting to be seen in routine hospitals.
The figure spiralled from 4.2million in March 2020 as hospitals focused on treating the influx of Covid patients, battled staff absences and helped with the vaccine rollout.
The problem is likely to get worse, according to NHS forecasts from February. The figure is expected to peak at 10.7million in March 2024 — at which point one in five people in England would be in the queue.