I had a phone consultation the other day in relation to my Parkinson’s and although I would prefer to have a face to face meeting, especially when it is with somebody I have never met before, it was manageable and definitely preferable to nothing. This is probably a good job because the intention to manage certain patient groups remotely existed prior to the pandemic so I should imagine that this approach is, unfortunately, here to stay.
Anyway, apart from my concerns about the limitations of telephone consultations - especially in terms of maintaining my right to medical privacy and my right to speak for myself at appointments ( not everybody wants this but I definitely do) - I have also been wondering about issues such as student participation in tele-consultations.
Pretty much every appointment I have ever had has involved student doctors and they will still be training in spite of the pandemic so I imagine that they must still be sitting in appointments. I’m wondering if a consultant would have to tell you if students were listening into your phone consultation and also if telephone consultations take place in a private office or a general office.
The consultant I spoke to was very personable, so was easy to speak to, and I was happy with the consultation but if this is going to be the new normal, I would like to know more about protocols surrounding this practice and I don’t know how to find this information out. Just wondering if anybody knows any more details about this sort of thing?
J x