GP Stories - E-Consult Worm
Since the pandemic, GP's have been under fire in the media for supposedly not seeing our patient's face to face, not understanding that most of the changes have come under direction of the higher authorities who requested we try other methods of primary care consulting given the covid pandemic. I can't speak for other practices, but in my area, face to face consultations were still going on if there was a clinical need following a telephone triage or online e-consult. E-consult is an online triage tool that many practices have used to increase access to primary care, there are many but e-consult is the one I am most familiar with. Patient's who complain may have likely forgotten pre-pandemic waiting times for a GP face to face appointment, which could sometimes be up to 3-4 weeks. In this current system, people can get a phone appointment on the day and have their issue resolved, or get a face to face consult within a few days of that if needed. The main difficulties h...