What impact are remote consultations having on NHS clinicians?

Project aims

We want to research how the NHS has implemented alternatives to face-to-face consultations and their effects on health care staff. We will interview clinicians who work in GP practices and hospitals to examine their experiences and views in relation to:

• working practices such as flexible working, remote working, efficiency and workload
• healthcare service delivery, such as impact on patient care
• impacts on staff well-being, including concerns about the risk of harm to patients, morale, staff recruitment and retention
• lessons learnt to improve future implementation of remote consultations, for example infrastructure and training

What we hope to achieve

We will share our findings with patients, clinicians, policymakers and technology developers to:

• raise awareness of the consequences of remote consultations
• inform guidance for future digital health interventions

How we involved people

We will work closely with public contributors from our Health Systems Panel as well as having a public contributor on our project team.

We will set up a patient and public involvement group to help shape and identify research questions and comment on findings. Towards the end of the study their support will focus on interpreting results and how to share them more widely.