Responding to the announcement of a new NHS ‘online hospital’, Dr Becks Fisher said:
“Bringing digital care approaches together through a new ‘online hospital’ is an interesting experiment. This will build on existing digital tools used widely in general practice and for some hospital services like ophthalmology and dermatology.
“It is sensible to give patients a free choice to opt in or out of these new digital services. This should mean that the NHS will not shut out those who want care in person.
“But there are some difficult questions looming about how this new service will be implemented: will doctors and nurses for this service be able to take on this work without it impacting on existing face-to-face work? And how will they pass patients who need care from digital to physical services?
“This service will only be safe and suitable for certain patients. How will we make sure it is kept to them? There is a risk that those who meet this standard will be mostly the relatively healthy, and those with the digital literacy to choose.
“Then there is the knotty question of how the NHS will pay for this, and whether that covers GPs taking part as well as outpatient hospital services. The centrally directed nature of this will push aside some local experimentation.
"This will be an interesting initiative and helpful for some. But it is not a transformative shift for most NHS patients, who will still want and need treatment in person."
Notes to editors
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