Consolidating primary healthcare
Technology, properly applied, can make a heck of a difference to primary care. So will it lead to consolidation?
A big Swedish group says that its primary care doctors now see twice as many doctors in a day after introducing a digital health frontend which offers chatbots and human chat. In fact, Swedish telehealth player Doctrin reckons that 80% of all those who use chat decide they don’t need a face-to-face meeting with a doctor. That mirrors figures in the UK, according to McKinsey, which says that, where such a function is offered, 30% of customers use it, of whom 80-85% decide they do not need an appointment.
All this leads to massive improvements in output. Primary care networks in parts of the UK say they have run out of primary care doctors. But using digital health intelligently means that a single general practitioner can have 2,000 or 2,500 patients on her books, instead of the more normal 1,500. That 2,000-2,500 level is being achieved in bigger, more forward-thinking groups GP groups such as Hurley Group, The Practice Group and Our Health Partnership.
Resistance to the new technology remains intense but Doctrin in Sweden says it is beginning to fade. There family doctors face competition from no fewer than ten new online players.”Doctors used to ask do we need to do this? Now they ask how do we do it?” claims Doctrin CEO Magnus Liungman.
But consolidating primary care is going to be tougher than dentistry. In some countries, such as Spain, primary care doctors are employed directly by the public sector, that is even true of 65% of family doctors in Sweden. In other countries, such as the UK, property is an obstacle. UK family doctors have got an amazing deal on the properties they operate from. Basically, the government pays the mortgage, maintenance and utilities, plus a bit more for the assets which belong to the partners in the practice. Buying out the partners can be prohibitively expensive.
We would welcome your thoughts on this story. Email your views to Max Hotopf or call 0207 183 3779.
