"Over Reliance on Online Consultations"

Using e-consult is fairly easy, but also extremely frustrating as line after line of increasingly nebulous text demands yes/no/sometimes answers, and - at unexpected moments demands you immediately seek help from Emergency Services. Helpful it is not. It might have made the IT Designers and developers a whole packet of NHS money,but its practical use is limited because of e-consult's complete lack of nuance. It is difficult to have confidence in a system that almost demands you "end your consultation immediately" and rush to A&E as you realise you should have said "No" to the question asking about how often you had had a headache, a bleeding nose or just felt sleepy! E-consult is, in many ways, designed to fail because it has so many triggers within its system that conclude you should "go to A&E" that one might conclude, it would, indeed, be better to go to Accident & Emergency , (which is probably the worst thing you should do, given that A&E was specifically designed for real, life-threatening emergencies.) In conclusion, e-consult is barely fit for purpose. Nebulous, expansive and frustrating to complete if the patient's problem is not exactly straightforward: and god help them if they are displaying unsual or unexpected symptoms because the over-formalised approach of e-consult will make equally unexpected and even unwelcome digressions. E-consult lacks the sophistication of truly AI-based systems and is really little more than a check-box framework linked to a vast lexicon of Medical Terminologies which is fine in simple, classical Intern,level cases. Beyond that there is a more fixed conclusivity and fragileness that has probably alarmed far more Carlisle Healthcare patients than it has informed. In my opinion, it is almost preferable to present the patients with a broader list of medical problems, symptoms and physical effects and ask them to simply identify the oldest questions under the Hippocratic Oath...

" Where does it hurt?" "How long has this been giving you trouble" and "How can I help?"