Thought you may be interested in this first paper of a survey/study into the Pandemic and Telemedicine. The link is the main page, to read the full article click on the PDF at the bottom of the page.
doi.org/10.1093/rheumatolog...
This link takes you straight to the draft PDF
I found this interesting Bcol! Thanks!
Hi there. Makes interesting reading. I actually took part in the Covid & Support Study 2021 survey too and received all the reports from Primary Care Unit team at University of Oxford this morning. Wonder if the findings will be used to make any kind of a difference though!
Thank you for posting this, very interesting
Thank you, Bcol. Kendrew asks if the findings will make any difference: who knows? I can't see much changing in the foreseeable future especially where hospitals like mine are concerned and where wards are full to capacity, A and E overwhelmed and medical and admin staff moving from department to department to help out.
I consider myself fortunate to have had a face to face appointment a short while ago which involved an ultrasound scan and the promise of an ECG which was confirmed a couple of days ago. The likelihood of a PET scan mentioned at the appointment remains to be seen.
GP practices and the way in which they are working are another matter. My opinion has changed in respect of what GPs are doing during this pandemic-I have no facts to impart but am in no doubt that their former roles and involvement have changed dramatically since the beginning of the pandemic.
Interesting to read different views of telemedicine and reasons for and against. It's all relative to each person's condition, degree of urgency, mental state and much more.
The solution would be to have more hospitals, nurses, doctors, consultants, admin staff, technologists , etc, to cope not only with the devastating impact of this pandemic but also a growing population........🙄
My daughters both actually say that you are more likely to get a fruitful consultation with the nurse or paramedic in the practice so don't turn them down. IF the nurse or paramedic feels that a f2f with a doctor is required you WILL get one.
Certainly I have no complaints regarding my surgery. No, I've not seen a doctor since the one in hospital last June, who was less than useful!! but the doctors at the surgery got me sorted as soon as they had seen my blood test results. To be fair I have neither asked for nor needed a f2f and they are always very responsive to making a telephone appointment when either I or they feel it is necessary. I was due a follow up heart scan last month and I suggested we gave it a miss given what is going on, but the doc insisted and had me booked in seen and sorted within four weeks so I guess we are lucky up here.
You are indeed fortunate. I had to recently really persevere with my surgery regarding my Pred prescription when my GP wouldn't prescribe sufficient meds due to a delay in my hospital review. I resented the feeling of not being trusted and am always polite (honestly) but as PMRpro said, nurses can be very helpful. As a result of intervention by the clinic's specialist nurse a prescription was issued for extra tabs on top of the shortfall should there be future delays. I also had the bonus of a sort of apology from the surgery's practice manager 😉.I haven't seen my GP face to face since the beginning of the pandemic and for some time before that. I saw my consultant in the hospital exactly one year after my initial diagnosis of Aortitis (with very active inflammation) and to be truthful if that appointment hadn't come along when it did I would have been making an enquiry.
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