Millions of patients will be encouraged to use digital technology to assess how ill they are under a new initiative by the NHS. This new idea is an attempt to reduce the use of A&E and outpatient appointments.
NHS will be embracing the change in advanced technology and people in Birmingham will be the first group of patients to be advised to use an online chat services, online symptom checkers and video consultations with doctors and nurses – this will help with stress of A&E departments.
The University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) trust decided to use the technology as it hopes it will transform how thousands of patients a year receive NHS care and treatment.
Under plans, people who think about going to A&E will be highly encouraged to undertake a 2 minute online check of their symptoms before going to hospital. The online assessments will tell them if they should go to A&E or not.
Patients will be able to talk to the consultants on their smartphone at home or work without having an outpatient appointment.
Dr David Rosser, the trust’s chief executive, said: “The way patients access and receive healthcare in Birmingham will be unrecognisable in five to 10 years’ time, with technology playing a hugely enhanced role,”
He added: “This is the first case of technology of this kind being deployed at such a scale to aid the hospital sector.
“We think that we can get 70% of our 2 million outpatient appointments on to this way of doing things within two to three years.”
“If you can have your outpatient consultation through a device of your choosing in a place of your choosing – at home or at work – then you don’t have to take time off work and come to the hospital.
“In the ‘virtual clinics’ we already run for people with liver problems, there’s a video link where you see the doctor’s face on half the screen and the other half of the screen displays your letters or results of your scan, for example,” he said.
