NHS rolls out phone video link for doctors to advise patients

Technology that enables doctors to provide medical advice by video link to patients with smartphones is being made freely available across the NHS.

It comes as the impact of coronavirus on London is expected to increase dramatically in the coming days and Hammersmith hospital’s urgent treatment centre closed this morning because of a lack of space to ensure patients with Covid-19 were kept separate from others.

Patients are being referred to the urgent treatment centre at Charing Cross Hospital where there is screening.

Doctors seeking to contact patients receiving care for other conditions during the epidemic were urged to make use of a new video consultation system.

Clinic.co has the potential to avoid thousands of face-to-face doctor-patient meetings rendered potentially dangerous during the pandemic. Professor Mark Wilson, who works at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, and co-founder Ali Ghorbangholi’s service enables patients to begin a video consultation on their smartphone by clicking on a link sent by the doctor which automatically activates the camera on the patient’s smartphone.

No download is necessary. All the doctor requires to sign up is a nhs.net email address. Professor Wilson said: “At a time when minimising contact is so vital, we have the capability to help make this happen. We are making the platform free for all NHS staff.”

The platform was released last year but, due to a lack of financial incentives for video consultations in the NHS, failed to take off. This week, as UK coronavirus cases rose, Clinic.co received 650 requests from doctors in three days.

Mr Ghorbangholi said: “Our secure, cloud-based nature means we can provide services at minimal cost.”