Premium-rate doctor helpline aimed at busy people
- 15 November 2006
A premium rate telephone service has been set up that allows callers to talk directly to a doctor 24 hours a day without having to speak with receptionists or waiting for a call back.
Talk to a Doctor is accessible either through a 24hr 0900 number, or through a freephone number and a £29.95 credit card payment for a twenty minute consultation. Callers can then select a qualified, GMC-registered doctor through a menu of options.
Doniet MacFarlane, founder of Stadn Ltd, which runs the service, told E-Health Insider that Talk to a Doctor was aimed at a wide range of people, such as those who are too busy to take time off work to make an appointment. "It’s aimed at chronic condition governance, as well as people who are embarrassed or don’t have the time to speak to a doctor about non-urgent medical issues. There’s a lot of men in particular who are embarrassed to go to a doctor."
MacFarlane said the NHS’s own telephone out-of-hours services, NHS Direct and NHS 24, had achieved great things, but Talk To A Doctor served a different purpose. "Where our service differs is that you can get straight through to a doctor. You can choose which speciality area you want to talk about through a phone menu, such as child health, women’s health… There are none of the traditional barriers."
"The other thing that we provide is the opportunity for people to talk through conditions," he added, explaining that the service encourages callers to ask questions.
Dr Catherine Laraman, one of the doctors on call at the service, said: "People can bank from home and shop from home, the next logical step was for people to have access to immediate medical advice from home. With Talk to a Doctor there is always a doctor waiting to give advice."
Another aspect of the service is Write to a Doctor. For a fee of £19.95, patients can choose a doctor from an online list of specialists, for which they receive three rounds of e-mail consultation. The service also allows patients to upload photographs.
The Talk to a Doctor site features videos and fixed premium-rate information lines on various subjects, such as sexual health and eating disorders. Instruction videos demonstrating exercises can be downloaded for free.
The service is not intended to replace face-to-face consultation and should not be used for emergencies. All calls are recorded.
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