Presentations from our April 19, 2017 event where more than 130 London GPs, practice managers and commissioners come together to look at new ways of offering patients online consultations.

The event aimed to support London CCGs and GP practices to understand the wider strategy for enabling online GP consultations widely accessible. It also aimed to help them identify the best way of offering online consultations that would meet the digital ambitions submitted within their local digital roadmap and sustainability and transformation plans.

Find out more about our the event: ‘Delivering the General Practice Forward View in London: Online Consultations’.

Dr Robert Varnam, Head of General Practice Development at NHS England, spoke to delegates about the vision for online consultations in London and provided some top tips about what to do to make it work.

Delegates heard from GP practices that are already offering online consultations in London. Dedicated workshops also gave people the opportunity to talk about the practicalities of setting up and offering online consultations, including how procurement might work.

We have set up an online Digital Network Group on Slack for those involved in setting up online consultations in GP practices.  Those involved will be able to ask questions about digital innovations happening around London, share ideas and lessons learnt, or ask questions about suppliers.

Presentations:

• The vision for online consultations – Dr Robert Varnam, Head of General Practive Development, NHS England
• DigitalHealth accelerator – Dr. Olivia Festy, NHS Digital Health Navigator, DigitalHealth.London & Sheena Visram, Quality Improvement Lead at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
• Learning from an accelerator area – Dr Axel Heitmueller, Managing Director, Imperial College Health Partners
• New ways of working: virtual GP – Dr Murray Ellender & Dr Ross Dyer-Smith, GP Partners, Hurley Group

Presentations from breakout sessions:

• Online consultations: the technology procurement hub – Robert Amil, IT Procurement Specialist, NHS England London
• Online consultations in Southwark – Thomas Munday, Primary Care Delivery Manager, NHS Southwark CCG
• An Omnichannel approach: Connected digital healthcare – Dr Minal Bakhai, Brent GP