Locked out, digitally excluded people’s access to Primary Care

During the Covid-19 pandemic GP practices have adapted how they have seen patients and, in many cases, have moved to remote consultations by telephone or by using online services. Whilst this has enabled GPs to carry out consultations in a Covid secure manner there have been concerns that moving away from face-to-face appointments had meant for some people who are digitally excluded access to primary care has been more difficult.  

In late 2020 and early 2021 Healthwatch England carried out research with groups who were considered more likely to be digitally excluded to understand how they had been impacted by the move to remote consultations and their report was published in June 2021.1  

As a provider of nine local Healthwatch ECS has replicated this project across our contract areas. We found that most people had experienced telephone consultations and that they were not given a choice in the type of appointments that they received; there was a strong preference for face-to-face appointments as people felt more comfortable seeing someone face-to-face or felt that the quality care would be better if they were seen in-person. For those with language barriers or other communication difficulties, the use of telephone-only consultations made it difficult to communicate and, in some cases, impacted on patient confidentiality because of a lack of interpreters available for telephone appointments. .  

The report has been shared across all our participating Healthwatch and will be used by them to make recommendations to commissioners and providers in their local areas.  

You can read the full report by clicking here