The virtues of online medical consultations were discussed by members of Powys Teaching Health Board as the heard one patient’s experience of the service.
At a board meeting on Wednesday, March 30, “Arthur’s story” which was about his experience of receiving consultations online, was read out to members by Claire Madsen, PTHB’s director of Therapies and Health Sciences.
Ms Madsen said: “We’re really delighted to be able to bring back patient stories to the board, this was a section we unfortunately had to stand down due to Covid.
“We want to thank Arthur for taking the time to talk to us.
“I think his story is pertinent to many people’s experiences during Covid as it covers the challenge of accessing services and the new ability of consultation through video assessments.
“What Arthur hopes is that his story provides reassurance to others that video consultation, while not the answer for everybody, they can be extremely successful and beneficial and that our clinicians will become increasingly skilled and confident in this medium.”
PTHB chief executive Carol Shillabeer said: “It allows staff and patients to be really flexible in how they access and deliver health care.”
Independent board member Ian Phillips said: “What a great story.
“I wouldn’t have thought about having virtual physiotherap.
“It’s a fabulous example of reassurance of both the ease, quality and impact of these consultations.
“We have a massive job ahead of us of catching up with the work we were unable to do, and I think it would be unfortunate if folks got the impression that we were doing this as a second-best way of doing things.”
He believed that the challenge for the health board is now to explain the virtues of online consultation to Powys residents.
Arthur’s story
Arthur had experienced considerable discomfort and pain in his right shoulder which meant that he had not been able to sleep on his right side for a number of years.
He was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and underwent many tests, obviously biopsies and scans.
Arthur said: “I started to find the scan experience more difficult than the diagnosis or the treatment.
“I couldn’t hold myself in the positions they wanted for 20 to 25 minutes.
“On one occasion it was 45 minutes that I had to be perfectly still for, and that’s when I went to see the Brecon practice about physiotherapy.”
After an initial consultation, Chloe contacted Arthur, to arrange a video conferencing physiotherapy session.
Arthur said: “I was really disappointed because I had a simplistic view of physiotherapy and I thought therapy just involved me going into room, Chloe twisting my head a bit and that the result would be instant.
“This problem had built up over years and what impressed me, Chloe identified the problems almost immediately by the way I was holding myself in front of the screen.
“At my second Zoom consultation, I did the exercises in front of her, and she would comment on what I was doing and how we needed to change certain things or tilt this a bit further this way and that.
“That’s what continued then throughout my consultations with her.”
“She kept on adjusting my posture and she would make comments on exercises that I did in front of her on screen.”
The consultation continued and when he had two major scans done in last autumn, he went through them “fine.”
Arthur said: “So, it was a positive experience thanks to the physiotherapy I had, which did not involve me being in a room with a physiotherapist once.
“I don’t see how I could have had better care.”
