Just how remote can insurers be?

Following the London Consultants Association urging doctors to think twice before accepting 50% fee cuts from insurers for virtual consultations – see our 17 June story – surgeon Mr Ian McDermott spells out why this work is worth every penny.

Only someone who has not been forced into doing tele-consults with their patients would ever try and tell you that they are easy . . . because they are absolutely not.

So-called ‘telemedicine’ via platforms such as Zoom or Micro­soft Teams has been a life-saver over the Covid lockdown period, and it has allowed doctors to still be able to have consults with those patients who need to be ‘seen’. 

We have read a lot about the positives of telemedicine and how this could ‘transform’ the way that we work. The reality, however, really is not quite that simple. 

Time-consuming process

Scheduling video consults oneself is somewhat tedious and time-consuming.