People's perceptions of virtual health care

Healthwatch Bolton worked with Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, to find out what people think about virtual health care consultations so they can take people’s experiences into account when implementing virtual consultation systems.  They received 247 responses to a survey.

The majority of respondents had some experience of having telephone consultations with a small minority who experienced video. The results show that people prefer to be seen face to face in certain circumstances which are dependent on the issue they have. For issues which a health professional would need to either- examine the patient, or physically see the patient then a telephone consultation would be of little use.

Some respondents found telephone consultations worked very well for them, but again dependent on the issue being discussed. People had issues with timings of calls, not knowing when to expect a call so therefore missing it, call quality issues and people who have disabilities such as deafness/hard of hearing and ADHD was very problematic. Respondents also found telephone consultations worked very well in eliminating the need to physically attend an appointment, saving on travel and child-care costs.

The report contains eight recommendations about considering people’s individual needs, appointment times, giving people enough time, checking that people have an adequate phone or broadband service, consider the needs of older people and people affected by the cost of living increases, provide alternatives and information to people about what to expect.