GMC calls for evidence on remote consultations and prescribing

The General Medical Council is asking organisations and individuals with relevant expertise to share their experiences, views, data and insights about remote consultations and prescribing via telephone, video-link or online. The deadline is 18 February 2020.

In the last six years, the number of online providers registered in UK has increased from 14 to 46 and doctors are estimated to deliver thousands of remote consultations to patients based in the UK every week. The Royal College of Physicians also recently recommended that doctors should do more video and telephone consultations to manage increased demand for appointments. Innovative new service models have also developed, which aim to improve access to healthcare for patients in some areas of medicine, for example, there is a growing market for online providers of sexual health advice.

The GMC will use the submissions it receives together with other information it holds, to decide if it needs to make any changes to its guidance for UK doctors, Good practice in prescribing and managing medicines and devices (February 2013). If so, this evidence will help the GMC decide if it needs to run a public consultation on a revised draft and help it to shape the consultation document and methods.

The call for evidence will run from 26 November 2019 until 18 February 2020.

Responses
You can respond by:

• answering the questions online at https://gmc-mpts.smartconsultations.co.uk or filling in the text boxes in the document by clicking the further information button above and sending it to the GMC via:
• by email to remoteprescribing@gmc-uk.org
• by post to: Remote Prescribing - Call for Evidence, Standards and Ethics Team, General Medical Council, Regent’s Place, 350 Euston Road, London NW1 3JN

If you’d like this call for evidence document in Welsh, easy read, or another format or language, please call the GMC on 0161 923 6602 or email it at publications@gmc-uk.org