GPs shun video for consultations
Most GPs are steering clear of email and internet video consultations with patients, according to a survey carried out by the British Journal of General Practice (BJGP).
It found that while 66% of the 319 respondents are carrying out telephone consultations, only 6% were communicating with patients through email and 53% of the remainder had no plans to do so. Similarly, none were using internet video services such as Skype, and 86% did not intend to use them.
The BJGP commented: “Despite policy pressure to introduce consultations by email and internet video, there is a general reluctance among GPs to implement alternatives to face-to-face consultations. This identifies a substantial gap between rhetoric and reality in terms of the likelihood of certain alternatives (email, video) changing practice in the near future.”
Hammersmith & Fulham gives allpay contract
The London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham has awarded payment specialists allpay a six-year contract to supply residents with access to the Post Office network for bill payments. The company will manufacture and despatch up to 40,000 plastic swipecards over the term of the contract, so that payments made at post offices will be automatically credited to residents’ accounts.
Sue Evans, the council’s head of pay and park, said: “allpay has a vast amount of experience in handling bill payments on behalf of UK local authorities and is a very customer-focused organisation with robust policies and procedures in place.
“The benefit of the new contract is that it brings both payment processing and card production under a single supplier as both were carried out by different suppliers previously.”
Homes for Haringey launches mobile repairs app
Social housing provider Homes for Haringey has launched a mobile app for tenants to report the need for repairs and estate issues, along with links to pay rent, search for housing and other functions. It also includes features to encourage community involvement and encourage residents to become involved in relevant projects.
It was developed by LookingLocal, the operation owned by Kirklees Council that provides reusable digital solutions for local services, from its MyLandlord product.
Kieran Toussaint, project manager for the housing information team at Homes for Haringey, said: “The RoI for the project was driven by the savings from channel shift, allowing our customers to report issues and log repairs to their homes much faster and more efficiently than by doing so over the phone.”
Image by Daniel Sone, public domain via Wikimedia Commons
