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Patients could face treatment via webcam in ‘virtual wards’
Land shortage could force medics to share desks and
consulting rooms
HEALTH chiefs are considering treating patients over webcams in “virtual wards” as part of a space-saving plan to make room for a batch of super-sized surgeries.
The polyclinics – bringing GPs and hospital out-patient services under one roof – are expected to care for 50,000 patients.
But with affordable land at a premium, the Westminster Primary Care Trust is struggling to secure space to build them and is planning a major squeeze on its existing assets.
In a recent report to the trust’s board acting director of service development Karen Broughton said: “Due to a lack of affordable land in London, and Westminster in particular, the trust is exploring how existing premises can be used more efficiently, commonly known a ‘sweating the assets’.”
She said the measures would include “hot-desking” – where medical staff share desks and consulting rooms – employing non-medical professionals like opticians and pharmacists to make clinical diagnoses and virtual wards, where patients are treated by medics via webcam over the internet.
The British Medical Association this week launched a petition collecting signatures across the country calling for the government to halt its use of the private sector in running the National Health Service and for greater clarity over polyclinics.
Connaught Square practice partner Dr Ruth O’Hare, chairwoman of Westminster Local Medical Committees, representing Westminster’s medical staff, said: “We have had lots and lots of patients coming in and asking how they can join the campaign.
“We have collected signatures and many said they had written to their MP. I think continuity of care is the most important thing for patients.”
Dr O’Hare, who has worked at the Bayswater practice – Tony and Cherie Blair’s local doctor – for 22 years, added: “Our concern is primarily for our patients.
“How can the implementation of a polyclinic model be justified when only one in 10 of our patients are in favour of these changes? I believe the funding would be much better spent on developing existing surgeries, allowing them to expand their good range of current services and to network naturally, without coercion.”
But Karen Buck, the Labour MP for Regent’s Park and Kensington North, said: “GPs will not all be herded in massive new centres, breaking the link between the individual GP and the patient. Many different ways of improving primary care are proposed, providing common support services to existing practices, for example.”
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