Skype consultations should be as common as stethoscopes, says GP...

Skype consultations should be as common as stethoscopes, says GP leader
By David Millett on the 1 July 2016

Skype consultations should be as integral to general practice as stethoscopes and should become 'the norm' for seeing patients in the future, leading GP Sir Sam Everington has said.


Sir Sam Everington
GPs should embrace new technologies and readily use internet video software to assess patients, Tower Hamlets CCG chairman Sir Sam has suggested.

The proposal comes as research published in May in the British Journal of General Practice (BJGP) found there was a ‘general reluctance’ among the profession to move away from face-to-face appointments.

Speaking at a keynote event during the Health+Care conference in London on Thursday, Sir Sam identified greater use of internet video tools such as Skype as essential to the future of general practice.

When posed a question asking how the NHS could move forward, he said: ‘Skype appointments are the stethoscopes of modern medicine and should become the norm.’

GP consultation
He added that the payments by activity used in hospitals ‘should be scrapped now’. GPs have hotly debated whether such a system should be adopted in general practice to properly recognise the work they do – and LMCs have voted in favour of implementing such a system.