eConsult Health has secured £7m in funding to accelerate take-up of its digital triage service.
Calculus Capital has participated in a new investment round led by Gresham House Ventures alongside existing shareholders.
eConsult works as a digital gateway to a GP practice, allowing clinicians to determine the right care pathway more efficiently for patients and benefiting the GP practices by releasing capacity and reducing costs.
it is driven by a proprietary, clinician-led bank of 10,000-plus questions produced using evidence-based medicine, NICE guidance, Clinical Knowledge Summaries, and nhs.uk sources.
And it efficiently records patient details, case history, symptoms, and provides them to the GP in a concise format where they are processed in 2-3 minutes.
Research shows that 70% of requests are closed without the need for a face-to-face appointment.
This funding will help us keep pace with the product development we need to support cutting-edge health technology across both primary and secondary care
Rapid adoption of eConsult’s solution has been aided by the introduction of centralised government funding for online consultation in 2016 and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically increased the need for digital triage systems leading to an acceleration in uptake.
As well as continuing to support the dominant position in NHS primary care, the investment will help the rollout of the company’s urgent and emergency care tool, eTriage, and outpatient triage tool, eSpecialist.
eTriage is designed to automatically check in and prioritise patients upon arrival to an emergency department, identifying sick patients earlier, reducing the waiting time, and ensuring that any red flags are immediately redirected to the appropriate emergency care.
eConsult is also advancing with its additional product, eSpecialist, which is intended to improve the efficiency of outpatient appointments and allow a joined-up service through primary and secondary care.
NHS patients deserve an excellent digital experience when interacting with the health service and we now look forward to delivering the transformation needed
Dr Murray Ellender, chief executive of eConsult Health, said: “This funding will help us keep pace with the product development we need to support cutting-edge health technology across both primary and secondary care.
“NHS patients deserve an excellent digital experience when interacting with the health service and we now look forward to delivering the transformation needed.”
Henry Alty, investment director at Gresham House Ventures, added: “At such a crucial moment for healthcare provision, funding the right businesses in this space is more important than ever.
“The eConsult platform has already proven the power of its clinically led technology, as the most-widely-used digital consultation solution and the first choice for NHS GP surgeries.”
