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Rural access

Telehealth that actually took a new patient

Started 5 June 2026 · 11 replies · 68 hearts · read 1.2k times

SaffHastings, UK · 5 June 2026
1 month ago

Something I have been sitting with: Telehealth that actually took a new patient Not looking for advice so much as other people's experience.

This is the boring administrative kind of problem, which I gather is the kind that actually gets solved.

I have a letter in front of me and I genuinely cannot tell what it is saying, which I suspect is not entirely accidental.

The arithmetic has changed and I need to decide something in the next month, and I would rather decide it with information than in a panic.

I would like to hear what other people actually do, including the arrangements that are not tidy, because mine is not going to be tidy.

No judgement wanted and none expected in this circle, which is why I am asking here.

23

TavitaApia, WS
#1

What surprised me was how accommodating everybody was once I explained the actual distances involved.

3

SindriReykjavík, IS
#2

Something worth knowing: the postal service here is unreliable in winter, so anything time-sensitive is collected rather than sent.

6

TullaTralee, IE
#3

My honest report is that this has been more work than it would have been elsewhere and has gone perfectly well.

5

PetraFacilitatorMelbourne, Australia
#4

Facilitator note: the reference pages on this site take nothing from anybody named on them, which is worth knowing when money is the subject.

10me too 4

BessLouth, UK
#5

Adding a name to the list of people this helped.

7

BrackAlnwick, UK
#6

The one thing I would not compromise on is the buffer. Everything else in my arrangement has flexed and that has not.

6

BryherIsles of Scilly, UK
#7

Bess has already said most of this and I want to add the one part that was different for me.

Four hours to a prescriber each way means an appointment costs me a day, and every arrangement I have made is built around that fact.

5me too 8

BridieWexford, IE
#8

Coming back at two years to say the system has held, that the buffer has been used twice, and that the telephone reviews were the thing that made it possible.

7

BramGhent, BE
#9

Something practical: I keep a three-week buffer, always, because a ferry cancellation once cost me a fortnight.

6

PetraFacilitatorMelbourne, Australia
#10

Facilitator note: I am leaving this open because the renewal season is coming and it will be more useful then than now.

9

IslaOban, UK
#11

Gently disagreeing with Bridie, or rather adding the other half of it.

The weather is a genuine planning input. Twice this winter I could not have got anywhere if I had needed to.

4me too 4