The report reviews 3 million NHS England secondary care video consultations over a year in one of the fastest roll-outs of a single technology in the NHS’s history. The report highlights the benefits of video consultations to patients – saving over the year a total of 4.64 million hours (530 years) inpatient travel and in-hospital waiting times and £40m in travel costs and parking charges. As a result, 3 million lost work hours were avoided saving the overall economy £108m in lost productivity. The report estimates fewer journeys to the hospital resulted in 14,200 tonnes of avoided greenhouse gas emissions, and 11 million fewer “single-use” PPE items, such as face masks, were consumed, saving the NHS over £1.1 million. The analysis also found that 1,730 hospital-acquired infections were avoided (not including COVID-19 infections) due to fewer visits to hospital sites. Read the report: https://www.edgehealth.co.uk/outpatient-video
A review of the NHS Wales Video Consulting Service, using Attend Anywhere, has found to be a hit with the people in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan with more than 90% of 22,000 survey recipients confirming they would use video consulting again in the future. Respondents mentioned reduced infection risk, improved convenience, savings on travel and parking as the main benefits. Dr Allan Wardhaugh, Chief Clinical Information Officer at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board said: We have seen them become a popular, convenient option for patients to attend their hospital appointments flexibly. This mixed methods evaluation was commissioned in mid-2019 and extended to cover the pandemic response in 2020. The national-level groundwork before the pandemic allowed many services to rapidly extend the use of video consultations during the pandemic, supported by a strong strategic vision, a well-resourced quality improvement model, dependable technology, and multiple opportunities for staff to try out the video option. Scotland provides an important national case study from which other countries may learn. ![]() Source: Copyright: Diego Vicente; License: Licensed by JMIR Read the Journal of Medical Internet Research case study here:
https://www.jmir.org/2021/10/e31374 With virtual appointments used by many patients throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust (PHU) announced that it will continue to offer video consultations for patients. Since April 2020, PHU has had over 6,000 video consultations using Attend Anywhere. Steven Young Min (a consultant rheumatologist at PHU), said: |