6. Why can’t people routinely make appointments to see their doctor via Skype or FaceTime? OAQ(5)0129(HWS)

Thank you for the question. The Welsh Government has invested £1.2 million in providing Skype for Business for the NHS. Consultations can be undertaken with this technology when the patient and the health professional are content, although there may be instances when the health professional may need to undertake a face-to-face consultation or physical examination following a consultation.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. The widespread adoption of digital technologies means we don’t need to require people who are ill to travel long distances to see doctors anymore. It frustrates me that the NHS often defaults to sending letters or even faxes—surely one of the last bastions of the use of the fax machine in modern society. It’s often patient confidentiality or security that’s cited as barriers as to why these innovations can’t be adopted. But advances are being made in England and the UK common technology services, which are linked to the Cabinet Office, is offering secure internet for the public sector without the need to resort to expensive private networks. I do feel that we need to confront these barriers to make sure that we are capturing the innovation available to other parts of the society for patients within the NHS.

I recognise the challenge that you put and it’s part of our informed healthcare digital plan for the future. We expect more people to be able to routinely use remote access and remote consultation with the healthcare profession, in both primary care and also in secondary care. I certainly wouldn’t want to give the impression that none of this had taken place. Some of that can be done by telephone now and some of it can be done by video call as well. For example, when I was in Ysbyty Gwynedd on Monday, I had a very interesting presentation from the Cartref project, which is the future hospital project sponsored by the Royal College of Physicians. They were able to show me an active clinic where someone was actually based in the hospital, and they had people who were attending a clinic in a more remote hospital for people who didn’t have access in their own homes to IT facilities, and they were having their consultation remotely. That was a regular feature and a regular part of it. And actually, the individual citizens using the service in that way were quite happy to do so because they recognised it saved them a long and difficult journey to do so.

So, I recognise the point you make and, in particular, as we reform out-patient services across the NHS in Wales, when you think not just about people who don’t need to use out-patients at all, where the follow-ups aren’t necessary, but those people who do need an out-patients follow-up in particular, what do they need to do and where can they be seen? Certainly, in eye-care, for example, we’ve already seen significant improvements in actually seeing people in different parts of our healthcare system by transferring images to make sure that the person doesn’t need to physically arrive. And actually, it is not just a significant use of time, but it isn’t always a good use of time either for the individual citizen or, sometimes, for the clinician to move around doing it from a remote clinic. So, there are significant opportunities for gain and a much better use of everyone’s resource.