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GPs have not struck the right balance between face-to-face and online appointments, a senior NHS official has admitted.
Shera Chok, deputy chief medical officer at NHS Digital, said some patients would prefer to see a doctor face to face.
“Everything turned around two and a half years ago because of the pandemic,” she told the Cheltenham Science Festival.
“That's why we've been told to do more remote consultations in 2020 to try to reduce the risk and keep people safe.
"We're trying to find our way back to the right balance. I don't think we're there yet."
GPs have not struck the right balance between face-to-face and online appointments, a senior NHS official has admitted (stock image)
On moving to remote consultations, which usually involve telephone and video calls, the east London GP added: "Some patients really like remote consultations, that they can type in questions at 10 o'clock at night and get someone to call them within a few days. Other patients really don't like that."
Around 80 percent of GP appointments were face-to-face before the pandemic, but in April 2020 this was only 47 percent.
The latest figures show that around two-thirds were in person this April.
Jenny Chong, from Medway NHS Trust in Kent, said virtual appointments were a form of "digital exclusion" for some people, usually older people, who did not use the internet.
“I understand face to face – we lose that kind of context and that is digital exclusion,” she said.
The Daily Mail has called for more face-to-face appointments, and NHS England issued guidance last month saying they must be offered to patients "unless there are good clinical reasons not to" (stock image).
"But at least we can give many other patients appointments quicker and quicker. They don't have to travel, there's less of a carbon footprint."
The Daily Mail has called for more face-to-face appointments, and NHS England issued guidance last month saying they must be offered to patients “unless there are good clinical reasons not to”.
Professor Martin Marshall, from the Royal College of GPs, said: “Personal consultation remains at the core of general practice and most consultations are carried out in this way.”