ZeroTheHero
Well-known member
- Joined
- 7 Dec 2017
- Messages
- 9,232
After the take up of doctors appointments over the phone during the pandemic, Matt Hancock has said "From now on, all consultations should be tele-consultations unless there's a compelling clinical reason not to. Of course if there is an emergency, the NHS will be waiting and ready to see you in person, just as it always has been."
What are people's thoughts about this?
There are some consultations that can of course be done this way - but locally these are *phone* calls, not video calls. I would have thought that it is quite important for doctors to see and examine patients in many cases - even if the patient thinks the malady might be minor. How can a doctor listen to one's chest, examine a rash, feel a lump, notice something the patient doesn't even mention that may be a sign of something more serious? We seem to already have got to the stage where a doctor is reluctant to physically examine patients, and starts the consultation with 'what do you think is wrong with you?'!
Is this a stage too far in many cases? Will people have to shout 'emergency!' to get seen?
(I bring this up because three wider family members have had phone consultations in recent days. The doctors seemed woefully uninformed of the medical history of the patients in two cases, and two cases are older people who do really need to be seen, but are all too keen to play down their ailments because they 'don't want to make a fuss'. In my - admittedly non-medical - opinion all three would have benefited by being seen in person and the consultation has not really answered their questions, resulted in positive action or reassured them.)
What are people's thoughts about this?
There are some consultations that can of course be done this way - but locally these are *phone* calls, not video calls. I would have thought that it is quite important for doctors to see and examine patients in many cases - even if the patient thinks the malady might be minor. How can a doctor listen to one's chest, examine a rash, feel a lump, notice something the patient doesn't even mention that may be a sign of something more serious? We seem to already have got to the stage where a doctor is reluctant to physically examine patients, and starts the consultation with 'what do you think is wrong with you?'!
Is this a stage too far in many cases? Will people have to shout 'emergency!' to get seen?
(I bring this up because three wider family members have had phone consultations in recent days. The doctors seemed woefully uninformed of the medical history of the patients in two cases, and two cases are older people who do really need to be seen, but are all too keen to play down their ailments because they 'don't want to make a fuss'. In my - admittedly non-medical - opinion all three would have benefited by being seen in person and the consultation has not really answered their questions, resulted in positive action or reassured them.)