Online GPs: checks find 40% failing

A NEW REPORT from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has revealed that 40% of “online GP” companies are not providing safe care to their patients.

The CQC established that there are 35 companies currently running online GP services in England. During the course of the current round of inspections, five of these companies stopped trading. At the end of February, as the inspections concluded, the CQC reported that 13 of the companies which remained trading were breaching patient safety standards.

Among the problems which the CQC found were:
•unsatisfactory prescribing practices, including inadequate checks on patients;
•over-prescribing of antibiotics and opioid-based painkillers;
•inadequate procedures to ensure that safety warning were heeded;
•failure to carry out basic checks when prescribing, such as whether patients were pregnant or breastfeeding or whether they needed a referral to a specialist;
•failure to carry out proper checks when prescribing asthma medication.

CQC inspectors welcome the improvement on performance since last year, when only 14% of online practices came up to the necessary level of performance – but patients will hardly be reassured by the 40% failure rate among those businesses which continue to trade.

GP at Hand was one of the first online services to begin operating in London. Patients have to download an app, which they can then use to report their symptoms. The online practice uses the app to get back to the patient with a recommendation – which can include a video consultation with a GP. If the practice decides that its patient should see a GP in person, it will give the patient an appointment at a central London surgery within 48 hours.

GP at Hand says this service, which available around the clock, suits many people with busy lives – such as those working shifts or long hours – and that it will help the NHS by reducing the pressure on conventional GPs.

However, there are many concerns about GP at Hand among health professionals and campaigners – that companies such as GP at Hand will take younger and fitter patients, leaving the NHS to cope with patients who have more complex needs; that they will leech funds from the NHS; and concerns that the care they offer will be substandard.

•STOP PRESS: local campaigners plan demo against GP at Hand muscling in to Poplar surgery!
•Read more about it: Locals protest at arrival of online GP

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