More than 5,000 online GP appointments

More than 5,000 online appointments have taken place in Powys over the last 12 months through the NHS Wales video consulting service, it has bee revealed.

The statistics have been unveiled as part of the Welsh Government’s Help Us Help You campaign which is raising awareness of how patients can access their GP, dentist, pharmacist or optician safely through virtual appointments.

Speech therapy patients across Powys are among those to have benefited from online support and Tara Louviere-Cowen is a senior specialist speech therapist at Powys Teaching Health Board.

She leads the new, local AAC (Alternative an Augmentative Communication) service which started in Powys last August, working with children and adults who cannot use speech as their main way of communicating:

“Virtual consultations help us to assess and support patients. We have offered virtual coaching and support to help problem solve use of their communication systems. Much of what we do is also upskilling others such as teachers, parents and carers.

“The use of virtual technology, because of Covid, has probably fast-tracked our work with members of the wider team including schools as we have been able to provide bespoke online training.

“We have had a huge increase in referrals which is fantastic because there is more awareness of the support that is available and we can deliver it to more people who need it.”