The Doctors\u2019 Association UK (DAUK) has responded to the Government\u2019s plans to launch a new digital hospital service by 2027.\r\n\r\nAnnounced today by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, NHS Online aims to cut waiting lists by allowing patients referred to hospital by their GP to speak to specialists via phone or video rather than attending face-to-face appointments.\r\n\r\nWhile DAUK welcomes innovation, our committee members have raised concerns the service may fail to address the root causes of delays in hospital care and could even pose risks to patient safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DAUK co-chair Ms Helen Fernandes warned that the proposals could exclude some groups of patients and risk lowering the quality of care.\r\n\r\nShe said: \u201cI hope it helps as we do need innovation.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhile there are areas within hospital healthcare that an app and remote appointments will work well, there are probably more in which it will not.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt will potentially disadvantage the older generation, those who do not have a smartphone, or have disabilities that make their use difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ms Fernandes also questioned whether online consultations would save any clinician time.\r\n\r\nSpeaking on LBC radio<\/a>, she said: \u201cA phone call to a doctor to carry out a clinic doesn\u2019t save our time.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe spend as much time with the patient as we would face-to-face.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe problem sits with the resources there are to look after patients.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe don’t have enough doctors, yet we have many unemployed doctors and a doctors training in crisis. So providing that service in 2027 and beyond is a risk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ms Fernandes also highlighted the new Jess\u2019s Rule<\/a> and the potential risks of over-reliance on remote care.\r\n\r\n\u201cJessica\u2019s care was compromised because she had a series of telephone and online consultations,\u201d said Ms Fernandes.\r\n\r\n\u201cIn my mind, the two don\u2019t quite fit together in terms of quality of care for patients.\u201d\r\n\r\nOther DAUK members voiced specialty-specific concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Shonnelly Novintan, DAUK Learn Not Blame lead and a plastics registrar, emphasised the importance of physical examinations in dermatology and plastics.\r\n\r\nShe said: \u201cAll our skin clinics need physical examinations and lymph node palpations in line with BAD and AJCC guidelines.\r\n\r\n\u201cPeople may think it is something that can be easily stepped down as \u2018take a photo of your mole and send it in\u2019 but we have to be examining the mole and lymph nodes to determine next steps.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe risk further delaying patients by seeing them virtually first and then in person and that delay could be dangerous in aggressive skin cancers.\u201d\r\n\r\nNeurology presents similar challenges, said DAUK\u2019s Dr David Nicholl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Speaking on BBC Radio 2\u2019s Jeremy Vine Show<\/em><\/a>, he said: \u201cThere are many situations in neurology where you have to examine the patient and virtual scenarios can be risky.\r\n\r\n\u201cI can think of a couple of patients I\u2019ve seen in the last couple of years where they had a very clear diagnosis of motor neurone disease.\r\n\r\n\u201cThey had gone through all number of two-week pathways and had not actually seen someone. It was very obvious when someone examined the patient there was a problem.\u201d\r\n\r\nDr Nicholl warned that an expansion of online access could \u2018swamp\u2019 the system without increasing the number of doctors.\r\n\r\n\u201cIn neurology, for example, we\u2019ve got the lowest number of neurologists per head of population in pretty much all of western Europe,” he said. “Without the increase in capacity I can\u2019t see how it can work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n DAUK stressed the biggest barrier to reducing waiting lists was not a lack of digital platforms but a lack of doctors.\r\n\r\n\u201cMore clinician time. More doctors,\u201d Ms Fernandes said. \u201cIf you want efficiency, speed, and reduction in waiting times, in our view this needs to be looked at.\u201d\r\n\r\nDAUK committee members are all volunteers and speak to the media about issues facing frontline doctors in their own time. Please support our work by joining DAUK<\/a> or donating to our GoFundMe<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Doctors\u2019 Association UK (DAUK) has responded to the Government\u2019s plans to launch a new digital hospital service by 2027. Announced today by Prime Minister…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dauk-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Jess’s Rule<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Physical examinations<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Patient safety<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Lack of doctors<\/h3>\n\n\n\n