As part of Scotland’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of the Near Me video system to access appointments for health and social care was rapidly scaled up at the outbreak of the pandemic. Now, a report by experts from Oxford University has concluded that using the technology has helped to reduce the risk of infection and allowed for continued service provision.
The report, published on 23rd March 2021, follows an in-depth evaluation of the video consulting service during Covid-19. It shows that between March and June 2020, at the start of the pandemic, there was a 50-fold increase in video consultations, from 330 per week to just under 17,000.
The summary report by Dr Joseph Wherton and Professor Trisha Greenhalgh, Department of Primary Care Health Services, University of Oxford.
Coronavirus (COVID-19) - Near Me video consulting service: evaluation 2020 - summary report