A Weymouth doctor has praised a new form of healthcare technology helping elderly and frail patients.

Consultant Connect is one of the UK’s leading telemedicine providers - and last year it helped 150,000 patients across the UK avoid unnecessary hospital queues.

The technology speeds up communication between primary care clinicians such as GPs and paramedics, and specialist consultants who can give advice from anywhere in the country.

Dr Laura Godfrey, GP Lead for Weymouth and Portland Frailty Team, used the technology with one of her patients to help speed up the process of arranging a scan.

Dr Godfrey said: “It’s not always clear which frail and elderly patients need to go to hospital, often they have complex needs that change the care they require. In these cases, it’s a real benefit to have expert advice on if they are best being treated at home or if they need further investigation.

“I had a patient who had been admitted to hospital a couple of times and was recently discharged. I felt she had an underlying and deep-seated infection, which can be especially dangerous for elderly patients.

“The patient hadn’t been scanned whilst in hospital, and I felt that a scan without an admission would support my management of her. I called the Acute Frailty line via Consultant Connect, and the consultant geriatrician arranged the scan for the patient at an outpatient clinic without her needing to attend any appointments beforehand.

“I would have had to admit her to hospital if I didn’t have access to the expert’s advice. As a result, the patient was able to stay at home and avoid an unnecessary admission, improving her care journey.”