Following a successful first phase evaluation of the NHS Wales Video Consulting (VC) service, the TEC Cymru team released the results of the phase 2a evaluation of the service and collected over 50,000 responses from patients and staff in the studies.
Sara Khalil, the program manager at TEC Cymru, chats with us Business News Wales about the national rollout of the VC service –
Sara describes how TEC Cymru
“Provides a platform and resources to support the sustainable use, scaling and diffusion of technology-enabled care across Wales.”
As part of the Welsh Government’s response to COVID-19, TEC Cymru and partners have set up the NHS Wales Video Consulting Service, which provides secure online access to healthcare.
The service is used in all healthcare facilities in Wales including hospitals, community care and general practices. Over 6.5k clinicians have been trained to use video consultations in more than 2,000 virtual clinics.
Almost a quarter of a million consultations were conducted across the country, with most users in speech and language services, physiotherapy and mental health.
The results reinforce the Welsh Government’s Help Us, Help You campaign, which encourages people to learn about the range of NHS services and options available to them through the NHS 111 Wales website.
Sara describes how “Technology Enabled Care gives us a way to do more with less”. She mentions how it can benefit both patients and staff. It also enables care to be provided “closer to home” due to the seclusion.
Gemma Johns, TEC Cymru Research and Evaluation Lead, said:
“TEC Cymru has a robust step-by-step approach to its research and evaluation. We learn more as we go through each stage and use each dataset to help local health authorities make better informed decisions for their staff and patients. “
“In the new VC report on the Phase 2a evaluation, we were able to delve deeply into the experiences of patients and clinicians and see how the benefits clearly outweigh the challenges. We were able to demonstrate how well VC works for our Welsh patients and clinicians, and also the opportunity to challenge many assumptions about digital exclusion in Wales. “
“The results in this report are intended to assist health authorities and the Welsh Government in future decisions and ways of working in the NHS Wales and in the future sustainable use of VC.”
Eluned Morgan, Minister for Health and Welfare for the Welsh Government added:
“This useful evaluation shows promising results on the use of video counseling in healthcare.
“It is encouraging to see that this service has received high ratings from both patients and clinicians, and I hope it will continue to be used and developed beyond the pandemic to provide wider access to health services.”
Other key feedback indicated that the service is well accepted in a variety of care settings and specialties, and clinically appropriate for a variety of patient populations, regardless of health status, age, gender, ethnicity, household income, and location (urban / rural).
TEC Cymru also noted that there is a long-term need for VC, typically associated with the significant benefits of using it, which clearly outweigh the challenges.
Visit www.digitalhealth.wales/tec-cymru for more information.
