The head of the HSE has strongly repeated his criticism that online GP consultations offered by health insurers are as reliable as psychic phone lines.
Laya Healthcare had criticised the response by Tony O’Brien, director-general of the HSE, when he was asked his opinion of their GP Live service, which offers to treat conditions such as urinary tract infections, stress and colds.
“Personally I would not use such a service. I’d sooner phone Psychics Live,” Mr O’Brien tweeted last week.
“To liken professional medical advice from Irish-based, practising and registered GPs with a psychic telephone line is wholly inappropriate,” the insurer said.
In response to Laya yesterday Mr O’Brien tweeted: “Just to be clear — I am not claiming I would have more confidence in a psychic premium rate phone line — I am stating it bluntly.”
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He added: “I don’t regard these commercially motivated offers as general practice at all. Not surprised by reaction either.”
Mr O’Brien said he was not opposed to online or telephone consultations if they were part of an enduring relationship between a GP and their patients but said doctors must be able to examine patients if needed.
The move by health insurers including Laya, Aviva, VHI and Irish Life Health to offer medical advice, diagnosis and prescriptions based on one-off appointments with doctors online has been criticised by medical bodies.
Mark Murphy, chairman of communications at the Irish College of General Practitioners, said last week that the services were a misappropriation of the name GP. “It is not general practice when someone who is not your GP does a one-off consultation and you never see them again,” he said.
The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) and the National Association of General Practitioners (NAGP) also said that it was not appropriate for patients to be given diagnoses and other medical advice by GPs who did not have access to their medical history.
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Padraig McGarry, GP committee chairman of the IMO, warned that there was an increased risk of misdiagnosis with online consultations and urged patients to proceed with caution.
“Private healthcare companies are purely seeking to make profit by offering these online services,” Dr McGarry said.
The NAGP has developed GP Online which allows doctors to speak to their patients online to prevent people from seeking alternative consultations.
The UK Care Quality Commission issued a damning report in June, which found that inappropriate prescriptions and a lack of testing before diagnosis were common in online consultations. The IMO said that nine of the services reviewed by the commission were found to be unsafe.
The practice was defended by Laya who said that it took the healthcare needs of its 500,000 customers very seriously. The company said that its research showed that 44 per cent of Irish workers miss four days a year because of GP appointments.