You are here

  • Home
  • Archive
  • Volume 7, Issue 11
  • Use of a primary care online consultation system, by whom, when and why: evaluation of a pilot observational study in 36 general practices in South West England

Responses

Article menu

Download PDFPDF

XML
General practice / Family practice
Research
Use of a primary care online consultation system, by whom, when and why: evaluation of a pilot observational study in 36 general practices in South West England
Compose a Response to This Article
Compose Response

More information about text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Author Information
First or given name, e.g. 'Peter'.
Your last, or family, name, e.g. 'MacMoody'.
Your email address, e.g. higgs-boson@gmail.com
Your role and/or occupation, e.g. 'Orthopedic Surgeon'.
Your organization or institution (if applicable), e.g. 'Royal Free Hospital'.
Statement of Competing Interests

PLEASE NOTE:

  • A rapid response is a moderated but not peer reviewed online response to a published article in a BMJ journal; it will not receive a DOI and will not be indexed unless it is also republished as a Letter, Correspondence or as other content. Find out more about rapid responses.
  • We intend to post all responses which are approved by the Editor, within 14 days (BMJ Journals) or 24 hours (The BMJ), however timeframes cannot be guaranteed. Responses must comply with our requirements and should contribute substantially to the topic, but it is at our absolute discretion whether we publish a response, and we reserve the right to edit or remove responses before and after publication and also republish some or all in other BMJ publications, including third party local editions in other countries and languages
  • Our requirements are stated in our rapid response terms and conditions and must be read. These include ensuring that: i) you do not include any illustrative content including tables and graphs, ii) you do not include any information that includes specifics about any patients,iii) you do not include any original data, unless it has already been published in a peer reviewed journal and you have included a reference, iv) your response is lawful, not defamatory, original and accurate, v) you declare any competing interests, vi) you understand that your name and other personal details set out in our rapid response terms and conditions will be published with any responses we publish and vii) you understand that once a response is published, we may continue to publish your response and/or edit or remove it in the future.
  • By submitting this rapid response you are agreeing to our terms and conditions for rapid responses and understand that your personal data will be processed in accordance with those terms and our privacy notice.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Vertical Tabs

Other responses

Jump to comment:

  • Published on: 14 December 2017
    A study of eCONsult, not of online consultations in general

    This study of 36 practices used a particular system, eCONsult, cannot be taken as indicative of online consultations in general. It is all about how the system works, both the software and within the operational system of the practice.
    The average of 0.9 per practice per day is clearly too low to have significant impact, and that was probably to increase costs.
    One of the practices involved, Concord Medical Practice, changed to askmyGP the following year and increased its uptake by a factor of 15 to around 60 per day (reported at SAPC, July 2017). Others have a similar level. Then the wider impact becomes measurable. Independent study is urgently needed as a £45m fund has been created to fund this technology, while published evidence says it will be wasted.

    Conflict of Interest:
    Chief Executive of GP Access Ltd, which owns askmyGP, a competitor to eCONsult, with a growing evidence base from over 21,000 patient episodes online.