eConsult Health Limited Avis 

This system is not fit for purpose. You go round and round going nowhere. 1 week later, still haven't found a way to get an appointment either through the surgery or this stupid system. Shame on you!

I am mostly proud of our public services and particularly the NHS. But I do get really irritated when common sense seems to be over-ridden by process. eConsult works well when it is turned on but at my surgery it only works in office hours. It goes home in the evening and at weekends! It's a computer program for God's sake!

If the problem is that when it is working, part of the triage process is to forward the caller to an emergency contact when they have an urgent problem, then surely the solution is to find a way to link it to emergency support out of office hours. Not to turn the thing off completely out of office hours.

I'm sorry to be strident, but this is a major and absurd flaw in the system that needs to fixed ungently.

I selected the medical condition via the list shown and then answered several (very) repetitive and detailed questions which really would have/ should have been raised by the GP during eventual consultation. Then inexplicably a screen message was displayed "cannot safely assess syptoms through this online request, you need to talk to someone today instead". So back to the GP receptionist to get help...I cannot see the point of this e-consult process, it adds a further level of communcation, and is not fit for purpose! Rating is Zero stars!

scam scam scam

Awful to have to fill out this endless, badly designed form. Very stressful when you are very unwell. A horrible experience, not clear about how and with whom it shares your information-

An absolute shambles!!!!!

I like the idea of econsult. One thing that causes a lot of stress though is that after filling in the form, they don’t tell you how long to wait for them to contact. I don’t mind waiting a long time if I have to but not knowing is very stressful.

Even if I only wait an hour for a call back, not knowing creates a lot of stress. And then after being contacted I was left again not knowing how long to wait, it was only 2 hours which was great but it would be nice to know it wasn’t going to be much longer.

A little note at the end of each message saying how long to wait for is all that it needs.

Wow! it asked my wife in no less than 5 different ways if she was pregnant! After she had said it was a chest infection. She is asthmatic and immune suppressed.
I understand that the system is under pressure but surely this should be easier.
So far at least 25 questions and we are tech savvy what an absolute disaster

NHSMail service experiencing intermittent issues

Last updated 18 days ago

It took an hour to fill in ! system confusing to say the least and only having 500 words is hopeless as by the time i have edited out words to except , what i wrote is nonsense!

Ring you back? They don't.
Ask the same questions several times, yes. But they still don't understand.
Repeat prescriptions the same - I've been waiting a week for somebody to press a button so I can collect a repeat prescription.
Good for the GP's I suppose, but not for their patients.

The number of one star reviews sums up whether the system is working or not

I thought the old system was bad. This is somehow worse than waiting in a call queue for an hour and dealing with an over-worked receptionist. At least in that case you would get a straight "yes or no" at the end of it. Why am I having to fill in every detail of my case again, when i'm in the middle of an investigation, and all this information is in my medical record? I just want blood test results and I'm having to sit a minor GCSE just to get a message through to the surgery.

Waste of time spent ages going around in circles no consultation or appointment could not even find the form to fill in.spent time phoning up untill money ran out. Only place I could book was a smear test. NHS making things more difficult for the patient

If I could give zero stars, I would. My surgery now uses an e-consultation system to triage appointments, making it mandatory to complete the online form. However, the form is time-consuming, taking around 30 minutes to fill out, and it fails to address all medical concerns—there's not even an "Other" option to describe your issue. The system promises a call within 24 hours, but they never called. After waiting two days, I had to follow up myself, only to be told, "We’ll call you next week to book an appointment." What kind of service is that? It is increasingly frustrating to navigate, and booking an appointment has become nearly impossible. The quality of medical care is rapidly declining.

Filled out the econsult as had an issue needed looking into. The econsult told me to seek medical advice and wouldn't allow me to continue with filling out the form. But that was why I was filling out the econsult to seek medical advice! I didn't know what to do after that so I called 111 they told me I needed to see someone within 6 hours and made me an appointment at the hospital. But also asked me to try my GP again to see me within 6 hours and I could cancel the hospital appointment as the hospital was an hour's bus drive away. So I rang the GP surgery and the receptionist sent an econsult to the GP. The GP text me with an appointment for mid January. Luckily I did not cancel my hospital appointment yet as was waiting on the GP to call me. To cancel the January appointment I had to let my GP know through e consult and to be able to get my econsult form through to my GP I had to bypass all my issues questions and tick boxes to say nothing was wrong just so I could finish the form and get my cancellation through to the GP. I went to my hospital appointment and because all my econsults I sent my GP were now sat on their system I was met with a very rude nurse who didn't listen to me at all.
I won't be using e consult again neither will I ever call 111 again and I may actually even change my GP surgery

E consult online form, I filled it in a 7.30am on a Tuesday morning as I needed to see a doctor asap as I was really unwell, reply came back you will be notified by 6.30pm Wednesday!!! So it's virtually impossible to get a same day appointment now!! Unfortunately people will be ringing 111 to get a out of hours appointment. This system clearly isn't working for people who really need to see a doctor the same day.Update received a call from the GP practice the next day on Wednesday mid morning only to be told they don't have any appointments and to ring 111!!!!

Did econsult , gp replied 3.5 hours later called emergency ambulance. Arrived 14 hours later. Taken hospital heaving with bodies on chairs and beds in corridor, had mri 12 hours later, showed problem but could be managed at home. Told ring gp for pain relief Monday morning. Told surgery what I needed told do econsult, reply saying meds be done by end of following day! No pain relief left. Complained so script was signed but turns out not at my gp but next village, I can’t move hubby disabled. Gone from oramorph entonox paracetamol to diazepam paracetamol to nothing! Someone will die because of this system, how much is it costing, and it doesn’t give you options for what is actually wrong with you. Someone’s making money for a program that isn’t for for all !!

Somehow worse than the old "call the GP 100 times at 8am". If you are seriously ill, it doesnt send message to triage team and DOESNT TELL YOU WHAT TO DO, it says need to speak to someone, but thats why i filled in econsult, to speak to someone, GP won't talk to you. I have flu symptoms, can't talk, difficulty breathing. Also had some blood in cough, I think from excessive coughing, but I'm not a doctor so shouldn't make assumptions. Use econsult. Get a red "need to speak to someone" message. Then no information on what to do next. There is a blue button but if you press that, it says "you've chosen to sort yourself, your request has not gone to team". So the assumption is not to press blue button, and request will go to team. No. I used Monday, no response, got an online private appointment, got antibiotics as coughing blood, told if not better 48 hours contact GP again. So I'm not better, fill in econsult again, same red message. This time I call GP and they say if you get a red message NOTHING GOES TO TRIAGE TEAM, there's no record they can see of the two requests. She said it should say "call 111" or "go to walk in". It does neither. And you can call 111 or go to walk in without econsult.. so what's the point of econsult?

My literal job is in medtech where I implement and improve workflows. This would never get implemented as its relying on the patient to infer an action. There should be a clear 'out' for every scenario. This is something I would expect the graduate in my team to come up with.

Its great if you can access it. My GP opens it up, so say at 8am, but you cant find the surgery on the list. The surgery tell you all consult forms are taken. How can that happen so quickly. So frustrating

Not fit for purpose as used by my GP. Only available for less than half an hour in the morning. Total waste of time!

Was seen by a Nurse Practitioner who asked me to make a follow up
appointment for a months times using econsult,one month later I had received no appointment despite ringing the practice 5 times to see if someone could make the appointment for me.
After one month I looked the My Gp App for a non related issue to find that my econsult request had been signed off by a Correspondence Coordinator with no input from myself or the Nurse Practitioner who had initially request I make the appointment.
My medication had been changed and the whole purpose of the follow up appointment was to review how I was responding to the change.
I will now need to contact the surgery again to express my concern and disappointment that my request has been handled in this very unprofessional manner.