https://app.portsmouth.co.uk/full_page_image/page-8-1958/content.html
Read this article yesterday. I am always amazed that, so often, it requires a study to discover the obvious.
Only a few days ago, I posted that I felt my wife’s stenosis diagnosis was delayed by up to twelve months due to the lack of face to face time with a doctor.
Much of a doctors diagnosis has to do with “observation.”
You can not “observe” via a telephone consult.
We have been forced into using e-consultation tools. My experience is that they do not allow sufficient space to describe symptoms fully. On several occasions, when I have used the e-consult tool, I have found the questions leading you down a path to either diagnosis of a brain tumour or diabetes when you are suffering from a broken toe. Invariably, the tool tries to abort, telling you that you need to see a doctor, which is where we came in.
You can not “observe” via an e-consult.
Last year, we were told by a nurse practitioner that nothing had changed, that we were getting the same level of service from our GPs as we always had.
What total and utter nonsense.
Another issue with the current level of service is that there is no continuity. In the “good old days,” not only could you get a face to face appointment with a doctor, but it was the same doctor each and every time.
Continuity would allow the doctor to “observe” physical changes in the patient between appointments.
So, back to the article, anyone with more than a single brain cell could have seen that patients are not getting safe and accurate diagnosis under the current level of NHS care.
WrAnTz 