Dr Morton's - the medical helpline
 | |
| Private | |
| Industry | Healthcare services and advice |
| Founded | 2015 |
| Founder | Dr Karen Elizabeth Morton |
| Headquarters | London, England |
Key people |
|
| Products | Medical diagnosis and advice; triage; and prescriptions |
| Website | www.drmortons.co.uk |
Dr Morton's - the medical helpline is an online and telephone medical helpline staffed by GPs, launched in 2015.[2][3][4]
Founded by Dr Karen Morton, the company was set up to provide easily understandable medical advice from qualified doctors, as an alternative to the NHS 111 service and GP surgeries.[3][5][6][7]
The British Medical Journal reported that private companies such as Dr Morton’s offer patients remote consultations for a fee, using computers, tablets, telephones or smartphones. Services provided included prescriptions delivered, diagnostic tests by post and medical monitoring. Patients accessed records related to their consultation through the company website. They either pay for a one-off consultation or pay a monthly subscription for access on demand. Dr Morton's were said to be expanding to offer services to employers.
The company's CEO John Wilkes estimates that up to 70% of general practice patients do not need to attend a surgery and that time taken off work to see a GP has net cost to the British economy of £5bn (€6.5bn; $7bn).
Dr Karen Morton said in the article: “More and more of my patients were having trouble getting appointments with their GP. A new type of health consumer is growing in the UK who is prepared to pay relatively small amounts of money for their healthcare.” [8]
Dr Morton's also produce online articles on medical issues with coverage in national newspapers including the Daily Mail, The Guardian and Daily Express.[9]
Recently Dr Morton's has become known for its online medical research and health data and in December 2015 disclosed its first annual results for the UK's most searched illnesses on Google. The results were exclusively published in The Week [10]
In January 2016, Dr Morton's produced a report citing that 'Cyberchondriacs (were) clogging up A&E after googling their symptoms and worrying that they're seriously ill' which was covered by the Daily Mail. [11]
During the same month, Dr Morton's was featured on BBC Radio 4's Inside Health programme. Dr Karen Morton represented the case for online private doctors. Some of the highlights included her description of the online doctor business model: "Our customers register online, they answer a very thorough medical questionnaire and then they set up a pay as you go or a subscription account. And then when they want advice our system recognises their phone number and screen pops their medical history in front of the doctor. Once the doctor’s confirmed their identity the consultation can start, with all of that background story to hand. There’s no time wasted and the customer is only charged for the actual consultation which takes on average under five minutes.
"Our GPs are a group of very experienced well motivated doctors who can see that there’s another way to provide primary care. For many years all of us have felt amazed that people had no choice but to physically go to the doctor about the simplest medical things and of course although it’s lovely for doctors to have people sit next to them face to face it’s obviously incredibly inconvenient for the patient on a lot of occasions. And there’s a lot of evidence now that 70% of problems that take people to the GP could be solved on the phone.
"Sometimes it’s just a medical worry, they’ve googled things, of course. 75% of people Google things before they go and seek any medical advice and often it’s just for reassurance or explanation. But sometimes it’s more specific, we’re getting a lot of email consultations with people sending photographs such as rashes, we’ve had all sorts of photographs of tonsils and unfortunately herpes rashes on bottoms and all sorts of things. People can pay by subscription, which is £35 a month for unlimited emails or phone calls or they can do it as a pay as you go,” said Dr Morton on BBC Radio 4. [12]
Dr Karen Morton is often quoted in the UK media, most notably for BBC, Sky News, LBC and ITN. Her written articles include pieces in Grazia, Woman's Own and Marie Claire.[13]
Dr Morton's - the medical helpline, run by Dr Morton's Limited, was registered with the Care Quality Commission on 9 September 2014.[14] The company's main offices are in London.[15]
References
- ↑ "Taxpayer to face £5,000 NHS costs". Belfast Telegraph (Belfast: Independent News & Media). 10 June 2015. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
- ↑ "Dr Morton's - the medical helpline". Care Quality Commission website. Care Quality Commission. 2015. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
- 1 2 Gutteridge, Nick (11 June 2015). "The NHS costs you £5,000 a year – and the burden on taxpayers is only going to rise". Daily Express (London: Northern & Shell). Retrieved 17 July 2015.
- ↑ Siddique, Haroon (24 July 2015). "Jeremy Hunt's seven-day plan for GP surgeries could cost NHS £3bn a year". The Guardian (London: Guardian News and Media). Retrieved 10 August 2015.
- ↑ Redfern, Corrine (9 July 2015). "Period Trackers: Everything To Know About Keeping Tabs On Your Menstruation". Marie Claire (London: Time Inc. UK). Retrieved 17 July 2015.
- ↑ Our values, Dr Morton's - the medical helpline, 2014, retrieved 17 July 2015
- ↑ "Taxpayers to face £5,000 in NHS costs". Business Reporter (London: Lyonsdown). 10 June 2015. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
- ↑ "The private, online GP will see you now". The British Medical Journal. London. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
- ↑ "Dr Morton's - the medical helpline". Medical Journalists' Association website. 21 October 2015. Retrieved 10 August 2015.
- ↑ "The UK's most searched illnesses". The Week. London. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
- ↑ "Cyberchondriacs clogging up A&E after googling their symptoms and worrying that they're seriously ill". Daily Mail. London. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
- ↑ "Online Private Doctors". BBC Radio 4. London. Retrieved 17 March 2016.
- ↑ "Would You Ditch Sanitary Products". Marie Claire. London: Time Inc. UK. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
- ↑ "Dr Morton's - the medical helpline". Care Quality Commission website. Care Quality Commission. 2015. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
- ↑ "Dr Morton's - the medical helpline". Care Quality Commission website. Care Quality Commission. 2015. Retrieved 17 July 2015.