About this good practice
Near Me is a video consulting service that enables people to attend health appointments remotely from home or wherever is convenient. The service witnessed a £1.6 million ‘12 week scale up’ by Scotland’s TEC programme in 2020 and is now being rolled out across a variety of public services. The service is already widely used across NHS Scotland for primary and secondary health and care appointments, with around 20,000 consultations every week as of 2021.
It is built on the ‘Attend Anywhere' platform aiming to reduce travel across rural Scotland. According to a survey conducted with patients for the ‘Evaluation of the Attend Anywhere / Near Me video consulting service in Scotland, 2019-20’, the average one-way distance they would have travelled to a clinic was 51 miles (82 km).
Near Me is an exemplar of healthcare delivery pathway innovation. It gives patients the option to receive healthcare wherever is most convenient for them and accommodates a wide range of circumstances. During and before COVID-19, it particularly benefitted the ageing population by reducing their exposure to infection and eliminating the stress and difficulties of travelling to an appointment.
Capacity for the underlying video consulting platform (Attend Anywhere) was increased a cost of £1.2 million p.a.
Resources needed
- Team of 6 people working remotely supported by technical team of 12 people.
- Network of Near Me leads in every health board across Scotland.
- 3 different service models were used on the platform; Hub-home, Dyadic hub-spoke and Triadic hub-spoke.
Evidence of success
Between March and June 2020, consultations increased from 330 per week to almost 17,000.
Near Me has:
- Reduced exposure to infectious diseases
- Reduced travel to appointments: time/cost/convenience
- Reduced time away from work/school/home
- Made it easier to attend
- Enabled patients to have someone with them for support at their appointment (joining
the consultation either with them or from another location)
- Decreased the environmental impact of travel
Potential for learning or transfer
Making educational resources for the implementation of Near Me available, enabled its rapid scale up in a time of crisis.
Establishing a technical support team was key to the adoption and success of the service.
Connection of ‘Champion’ clinicians with their peers to share tips on the best use of Near Me relative to their specific field and circumstances extended the reach of the service.
Despite the wide-ranging positive impact of Near Me there are still barriers for some patients:
- Poor or no access to an internet connection
- No access to private space where they can use Near Me to speak confidentially with clinicians
- Low digital skills
To extend the positive impact of the service, the team is confronting the digital divide and finding solutions to the lack of private spaces by working with organisations such as Connecting Scotland, Libraries, Community Centres or Village Halls that can provide safe spaces and technical support.
Further information
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