Turn on tv - to see your GP!
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PATIENTS could soon be switching on their TVs to see their doctors under plans to plug a GP shortfall with technology.
Telehealth would give more doctors the ability to communicate with patients from hundreds of miles away via live-link video.
Gill McVicar, NHS Highland’s director of operations for North and West Highland, said the equipment could cut the costs of hiring stand-in doctors to see patients out of hours — but challenges lie ahead.
The move, which would be spurred on by a £146 million publicly-funded roll-out of Superfast Broadband across 84 per cent of the Highlands and Islands by 2016, was given a cautious welcome yesterday.
Isabelle Campbell, Independent councillor for Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh, said lack of broadband in scattered isolated patches was the biggest hurdle in the way.
"A lot of communities are working on trying to get their own boradband thing in place but there’s still quite a lot of pockets without it."
The matter came to light less than a fortnight after a crisis in out of hours care came to light.
Extra workload pressures placed on GPs since 2004 has resulted in fewer opting to see patients after 6pm or on the weekends.
The situation is taking its toll on health care budgets, with locum doctor costs totting up to £8000 per weekend of cover in some places, such as Wester Ross. Waiting times at accident and emergency departments are also going up as more and more people bypass NHS24 and head straight to hospital.
Mrs McVicar said GPs were not abandoning their responsibilities.
Changes in 2004 lifted the obligation to work out of hours but placed more emphasis on quality and improvement, massively increasing recording procedures and therefore paperwork.
She said: "We were able to demonstrate an improvement in quality because we have got much more information but that is quite a task for GPs. That is why a lot of them are saying it is just too much to work nights and weekends as well. They tell us they need to have a work
life balance. And that is the right thing to do because we do not want tired professionals that are a risk of making poor decisions."
Mrs McVicar said one of the consequences of that was the budget for out-of-hours cover had spiralled out of control.
She said the £9.5 million annual budget was already £1.4 million into the red — an increase of £1.6 million from last year’s £9.3 million total spend.
She added: "For Wester Ross for one weekend we can pay £8000 to cover — however that is not every weekend."
Health bosses are in talks with GPs and nurses to find a long-term fix and Telehealth is being eyed as a solution.
The Scottish government said it is committed to improving broadband coverage and infrastructure.
A spokesman said: "This is reflected by the substantial investment we have made via our £146 million Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) Programme.
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