Good idea?

[Sqad]

http://www.dailymail....h-monitors-homes.html

What a good idea...........the patient doing more for his/her self......good idea or not?

Most GP home visits are unnecessary and time consuming.

What do you think?

Can diagnosis be made over the phone?

[daffy654]

I would be very happy to use the equipment mentioned in the article. I refuse to visit (or attempt to visit) my GP because you always have to wait weeks for an appointment. It would be handy to have the device tell my GP that I needed some oral steroids or antibiotics when my condition requires it.

[woofgang]

Its not diagnosis over the phone, its monitoring of certain diagnosed conditions. Informally patients with some chronic conditions already know what signs to look for to contact the GP or specialist nurse, and practices "believe" the patient and act accordingly without visits. I am thinking particularly of people with asthma or copd, just as this study is. With the telemonitoring equipment, this can be refined and improved on.
Even the Mail is finding it hard to find a downside.........

[ummmm]

//Can diagnosis be made over the phone?//

Yes...that already happens. My grandad, who is prone to water infections, regularly gets diagnosed by phone.

[horseshoes]

This week I am using a blood pressure monitor for a week and recording the results AM and PM. Great idea. Saves the doctors time, and me a few trips to the surgery which is 5 miles away.

[Kiki-frog]

Monitoring an existing condition would be so much easier for all parties concerned if it could be done over the phone - saves the GP's time, and the patient doesn't have to wait for an appointment and make the journey to the surgery.

But as far as diagnosis is concerned, a good GP can pick up a lot of info from a facial expression or body language, helping them to ask the patient the right questions

[pdq1]

Its a well known fact in our area GPs are very reluctant to make home visits even if the problem sounds urgent. In fact there was a story in the news recently where the only sure way of getting a callout was to be certified dead.

GPs like to deal with patients on the phone especially if they can call up the patients history on the computer and now we tend to use this method.