Due to the corona crisis, video calling with the general practitioner has skyrocketed in recent months. A majority of GPs want to continue to do this in the future. Plus readers are not enthusiastic about this, according to a poll among more than 1,400 readers on this site. Only 19 percent experience a digital consultation with the doctor as pleasant.
From an investigation by RTL Nieuws Among 268 GP practices, it appears that sixty percent of doctors want to use video calling more often in the future. Because it is efficient for both the patient and the doctor. Other doctors in the RTL Nieuws study point out the risks of digital consultations. For example, Frans Jacobs, general practitioner in Venlo, explains: “About ten of my patients continued to have problems with problems for longer than necessary. And that turned out to be, for example, skin cancer or colon cancer.”
Digitization
Plus readers clearly prefer to see the doctor physically, according to a poll on PlusOnline. For some readers, that’s for technical reasons. For example, someone says: ‘I can’t even make video calls, because I don’t have a smartphone.’ Another responds: ‘I don’t understand my doctor well. I also find it annoying to keep asking ‘what are you saying?’
Faults
The vast majority of readers are afraid that the doctor will miss something if there is only contact via the telephone or computer. Some of the readers also experience video calling as ‘impersonal’.
Waiting room
For some, video calling has actually become a godsend, although this clearly only applies to ‘simple’ appointments. One reader writes: ‘It is a very good alternative. When you visit a doctor, you often spend fifteen to half an hour in the waiting room and when it’s finally your turn, you’re often outside again after ten minutes.’
(Reactions from all readers can be found here and here)
