The level of teleconsultations that took place in Irish general practice during the Covid pandemic has not been maintained in the post-pandemic period, new research shows.

A study on remote consults by Ellen McHugh and Sheelah Connolly of the Economic and Social Research Institute used three waves of a nationally representative cross-sectional survey of health in Ireland (Healthy Ireland survey), relating to the years 2020/21, 2021/22, and 2022/23. 

The sample included people aged 15 and over who reported seeing a GP in the four weeks prior to the survey. 

In the three years identified, respondents who reported that they had at least one GP consultation in the four weeks prior to the survey were asked where that consultation took place (in a GP surgery, over the phone, video consultation, etc). 

In 2020/2021, 1,428 respondents reported having a consultation in the four weeks prior to the survey, the corresponding numbers for 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 were 1,623 and 1,735 respectively.

At the height of the pandemic (2020/2021), 39% of respondents reported that their most recent GP consultation took place remotely. However, this decreased significantly in the following years, falling to just 10% in 2022/23. 

The researchers said while a relatively small proportion of GP consultations took place remotely, some groups were more likely to report a remote consultation than others. 

In the later periods, for example, women were more likely to report that their most recent consultation took place remotely, while older age groups (eg. 50+) were less likely to report this. In 2022/23, people with private health insurance were more likely to report that their most recent consultation took place remotely, as were those with a long-term health condition.

The researchers concluded that given the emphasis on the potential use of telemedicine, there is a need to understand why there is a relatively low level of remote consultations in general practice in Ireland, and why some groups are more (or less) likely to avail of such consultations. 

They said a greater understanding of the potential barriers to the use of remote consultations and telemedicine more generally is required if telemedicine is to become embedded in the Irish healthcare system. 

The research is published in the journal Telemedicine and e-Health.