Medtech can reduce burden on GPs, survey says

GPs are increasingly willing to use digital technology to improve patient services, according to a new survey by digital health company Doctorlink.

The survey includes a sample of 100 GPs, who give their opinions on digital health, patient care, current pressures and more.

Concerns over current surgery models are raised in the survey with 82% saying that pressure from patient demand is unsustainable and 97% admitting that the current model must adapt to survive.

Other issues such as recruitment and retention are felt by GPs; 63% think their counterparts are retiring early, 70% believe younger doctors are avoiding the profession and 63% find it hard to recruit support staff from nurses through to administrators.

The majority of GPs (73%) believe that the quality of patient care is being negatively affected by current pressures and almost half (48%) think that between 20% and 40% of their appointments are unnecessary.

Most of the GPs (88%) agreed that technology is vital to ‘future-proof’ their surgeries though 91% said that facilitating better connectivity between primary care services will be more effective.

Adapting how patient care is managed and changing patient behaviour is thought to potentially have the biggest benefit for improving the quality of service in surgeries. When asked “what in reality will protect future sustainability of NHS GP surgeries”, 53% responded with the adoption of medtech and apps to reduce the burden on GP staff and 96% said they would be interested in trying digital triage.

Andrew Gardner, founder and CEO of Doctorlink said: ”At a time when GP surgeries are being asked to do more with less, we see an increasing appetite from doctors to trial digital innovation within their surgeries to improve efficiencies. Doctorlink is the only digital triage tool specifically designed to support NHS GPs with the challenges they face as they juggle limited time and ballooning patient demand. It will unlock the latent capacity that’s consumed by the staggering number of unnecessary patient appointments taking place every day. Doctorlink gives GPs more time – to provide the quality of service and care they would like to, and to prioritise those patients who need urgent medical support gives GPs more time – to provide the quality of service and care they would like to, and to prioritise those patients who need urgent medical support.”