Top Doctors offers free e-Consultation during COVID-19 crisis
Access to online medical care eases some of the pressure currently facing UK healthcare providers
Top Doctors has announced it will make its e-Consultation service available for free to all medical professionals throughout the UK for the next two months.
The service connects leading doctors and healthcare specialists with patients, providing real time medical advice, and helping to reduce congestion at a time when hospitals and medical centres are postponing regular health check-ups and appointments.
Using the e-Consultation platform, patients will be able to make appointments and get advice from leading medical specialists at any time, via a private messaging or video conference service; all available 24/7, 365 days a year.
e-Consultation is fully encrypted and GDPR-compliant, meaning doctors can guarantee their patient data will remain secure from fraudsters and cyber criminals, unlike mainstream chat platforms.
Any medical professional can request access to the platform and, in recent weeks, user requests have dramatically increased due to the pressure healthcare providers are currently facing in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak.
In the UK alone, user requests on the service have increased 466% compared to the beginning of March, as more patients adhere to social distancing rules.
Alberto Porciani, chief executive of Top Doctors, said “Despite the pandemic, it’s crucial that doctors are still able to meet the needs of their regular patients, adhering to social distancing guidelines where possible.
“Less-urgent appointments are being cancelled, but there are certain cases that cannot wait for diagnosis, follow-up or treatment.
“e-Consultancy has an important role to play in ensuring patient care standards remain high across the UK and in the last three days we have received the same number of requests from medical professionals to access the platform as we would normally in one month.”
