eConsult Health Limited Arvostelua 

This is a blunt and next to useless tool that serves only to frustrate and annoy the users, and by users, I mean people who are ill and need expert help. Yes it may cull the curse of GPs, 'the worried well', but that is dehumising, arrogant and patronising. Any degree of complexity or nuance and the "triage" is bound to fail. Assurances that a GP is reviewing every submission is, I believe, nonsense. It's closer to the truth I suggest, that back-office staff are taking the AI scored submissions and making appointments from there. It closes the door to email contact with the practice's admin or GPs. The "Help" is useless. Feedback is pointless as there's never a response. This is another step towards turning the NHS into a US style Medicare. *Avoid* Oh, hang on... we can't.

An awful experience that stops me speaking to my doctor, unnecessary process and paperwork that doesn’t care for anyone’s time. This should be banned for how disgraceful it is to the customer.

The worst ever use of technology to replace common sense and logic. eConsult: Putting process and procedure in the way of primary care.

A great tool for the NHS to deter people with genuine health issues from getting help. Convoluted, lengthy, irrelevant categories and questions. Goodness knows how some elderly and vulnerable people navigate this. I spent a considerable amount of time this morning trying to navigate the system to secure a short term prescription for a medication that was unavailable due to NHS supply chain problems. Why on earth can't there be a section for general enquiries that doesn't then digress into a raft of questions as to the condition for which repeat prescriptions were issued? I wouldn't have had to use the system had a pharmacist not provided a paradoxical reply to a telephone enquiry. This was after a pharmacy assistant said I had to use E consult and I telephoned back to say it wasn't appropriate. An internal Email was then sent to the pharmacist who seemed to take the view that I, as a C3 spinal injury tetraplegic should trot along to a pharmacy and purchase an alternative when apparently there wasnt an alternative. This is no doubt causes patients to simply give up.

Rubbish awful system as is rapid health it relies on information that you are made to feed into the system totally unrelated to the condition you are querying and then writes in your notes that you have cancer. Will have a stroke legs don’t work etc. alcoholic smoke 10/day when I am teetotal and never smoked.The GP refuse to remove the incorrect info and appear to actually believe this rubbish. Apparently I am only denying these unhealthy habits and might not be telling the truth. They have known me for 25yrs and it is like I am a complete stranger. I need to say I am a fit healthy person who just wanted bloods checked. What is a GP? They are now so computerised that they have no relation with their patients and do not use their medical expertise to diagnose but just use a lump of tech which is totally inaccurate. There will be many patients walking around with serious incorrect diagnosis and put on serious potentially harmful medication. The whole nation’s health and well-being is being put at complete risk.

I simply change would be to have the category choice before having to type in the symptoms. I spend ages typing within the text length limit and then was told on choosing the category that it couldn't help and I should phone for an appointment. Swap them round!

From a patient’s point of view, awful. It’s like a clumsy, poorly designed game.

Used it for the first time today.
I dismissed the negative feedback I’d heard, I was confident it would be efficient and convenient.
I had to phone the surgery for help, apologizing to them for feeling helpless. I got the impression I wasn’t the first one to do this..

E Consult tells me at 9.15 in the morning, 'your practice isn't accepting on line requests at this time. You can submit a request again from 7 am tomorrow'. It is 9.15 am when I am told this. I have been on the queue to my surgery since 8am ish - only eventually on getting through to be told by the receptionist the only way to make an appointment to speak to a doctor is to use the 'ap'. I try the NHS site through which I order my prescriptions and with which I am reasonably familiar but - no go - this doesn't offer a link to my surgery. I google my medical practice (certain entries suggesting it is closed' which I ignore as I know it isn't) and reach a link to their site. It offers an E Consult link - but a coloured warning underneath to read the numerous alternative options first. These suggest I may to prefer to go to hospitals up to 15 miles away or mental health units or child units. Eventually concluding none of these are remotely relevant, I return to the E Consult link - only to get the message above.
And this system taking an hour to tell people to go away and 'submit a request' the next day is designed for use by 'ill people'?
It is literally inhuman.

(Nor frightfully useful is the warning that my 'browser' is too old for this site. I need my browser to access programs that won't work on newer browsers. But am fearful that before long the NHS will block me from being able to access medical treatment because of a 'too old - but necessary to me - browser'. At which point I presumably just get ill with no help available.)

I like this means of contacting my GP Surgery and have had a number of positive outcomes. However, I found it very difficult when trying to use it recently to report issues I was experiencing with recently prescribed statin tablets. I was unable to get to the point as the process is far too lengthy and complicated

. I had pre-prepared my message and assumed that (even as a 93 year old) entering it on a form and sending it would be simple! I gave up after a frustrating half-hour and will not try to use econsult again. I then sent an email and a GP rang soon after. Five stars for that.

I have tried to use Econsult over the last couple of days following instructions from my GP Practice to do so. I have not been able to submit a request , even twice this morning between 7.00am and 7.30am.
My condition is not serious, I believe, but my faith in the system has evaporated.

Econsult literally closes less than an hour after it opens, yesterday I was sat on the end of my bed having the worst panic attack of my life over work and I couldn’t get a sick note to stay off and had the worst mental health day. Doctors refuse to write notes because I should be using econsult. It was shut 20 mins after it’s supposed to be available one time. I’m sick of it. Can’t get help anywhere

We used Econsult today. We had text prepared to describe a complex issue which was impossible to submit.
It assumes 500 characters, less than 100 words, is enough to specify an issue. We had 900 characters.
It does not include bladder, bowel or vagina as a category, all of which affect my wife.
It is not suitable for anyone not technically minded as it takes too long. Our surgery expects elderly and untrained people, or a parent with a sick child, to plough through page after page; most would (justifiably!) give up. Econsult is simply not suitable for them.

Whenever I try to use this on my GPs website it always says that they aren’t taking any new forms. It a joke and when I phone up my GP they can’t book an appointment for me. I’m 26 and have been having issue with my knee and it’s getting worse but I can’t see anyone about it because of this pathetic form

Called the GP surgery to book appointment for my mother who is 79 years old with dementia was told you have to use econsult.
So I tried you get so far and there is no response listed for the condition so you are stuffed.
It's absolutely crazy that older people are expected to use this.

Absolutely useless. NHS you should be so embarrassed.. how on earth are elderly people supposed to get an appointment. Im disgusted. Unfortunately I will need to use this shambles soon as I need Jury Duty Excusal! Am dreading it.. thank god am 55 and have not needed to see a Dr since 2012! Its DIABOLICAL.

An appalling system that is not fit for purpose. The questions are repetitive and mainly not at all relevant. The form takes far too long to complete and could be easily streamlined. Questions like "what treatment do you need" are completely idiotic. I have a medical problem which is why I am trying to contact a professional to ascertain what treatment I require. If I just require an appointment with a practice nurse to have an injection I am unable to do so., a classic example of why the system is not fit for purpose. I have complained to my practice they really don't care.

Surgery would not deal with my request in writing so had to use this system. Questions not relevant to what I wanted as I was already being treated, just needed to swap meds for something I had had before which suited better.. Where is the 'other' option? It would be so much easier if you could just describe issue rather than all the unnecessary and repetitive questions which make assumptions that treatment has never been sought. They advise they are contacting surgery (presumably with exact same info that I already tried to provide direct). Mine was concise, they now will receive pages of irrelevancy including my affirmative response to the question "have you been passing wind (farting) today?" (these exact words used). Really?.

Not fit for purpose. Questions are limited and repetitive. Takes too long and ends by telling you to ring your GP urgently. My GP no longer takes appointments by phone so it's a vicious circle. Waste of time.

The question process is terrible, the way it asks for information, means you have often repeated yourself. Then after a protracted amount of time it often gives up and stating it won't contact the surgery, delaying the decision on what to do next. The reason for this is obscured,however I would guess it has either not understood the issue or it does not want to be responsible for the outcome. What happens to the information input at this time is not clear. Currently I think it is an information collecting tool for Machine Learning/AI models.
I am forced by the surgery to use this tool, but who owns the data input, at the point of no decision the data should be deleted but I expect it isn't. I would be extremely surprised if it was compliant with the GDPR regulations.