Sustainability of GP at Hand model questioned in major independent report

[Northerner]

An independent report on the impact of GP at Hand on patients, the wider health service and the workforce - carried out by Ipsos Mori on behalf of the CCG hosting the service - was unable to conclude whether the service was affordable and sustainable in its current form.

It warned that the model required 'considerable numbers of GPs' to sustain and that a national rollout of digital-first services may need 'fundamental large-scale redesign of primary care services, which may require substantial changes in the way in which primary care is funded'.

Despite GPs working for the service - largely remotely, from home - reporting satisfaction with the work-life balance it offered, the report highlighted 'significant questions about possible transferability and scalability of the model to other areas and wider groups of patients'.

https://www.gponline.com/sustainability-gp-hand-model-questioned-major-independent-report/article/1585616

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[mikeyB]

Anybody with half a brain cell could have predicted that this is a complete non starter, a daft idea from the outset. I wish I still lived in Scotland, they don’t do this kind of weird s**t with the NHS. It’s just part of the privatisation of the NHS sub plot.

 

[trophywench]

Well indeed - BUT in Scotland they have been doing work to trial medical follow-ups over the internet rather than folk having to travel a million miles with lack of public transport - I know this because a lady on our motorhome forum was asked to check her internet speed over a reasonable period and at different times of day. Apparently to be robust they need to have confidence on reliability within a defined margin - and hers was only about 25% of that most of the time.

 

[mikeyB]

It’s not the lack of public transport, as I discovered living on the Isle of Mull. It’s the sheer distances involved. I could have journeyed the 100 or so miles to my hospital appointments on public transport, but appointments tend to be in the morning, and even then too late to get back using the same route the same day. So appointments, even with hospital transport, had to be get there, stay the night, go for the appointment, stay the night, and get back. That’s why I haven’t got a pump. I was set up for one, but the pump clinic was in Paisley, rather than three miles away as it would be now.

And that is why the highlands are being prioritised for fast broadband.

These problems just don’t exist in England.