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Carer satisfaction with telephone consultations in a community intellectual disability unit
- Authors:
- BAINS Harinder, BONELL Enrique, SPEIGHT Peter
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, 14(4), December 2010, pp.259-265.
- Publisher:
- Sage
- Place of publication:
- London
Telephone consultations have been shown to reduce the number of surgery contacts and out-of-hours visits. However, previous studies in general practice settings have shown patient dissatisfaction with a model based on telephone consultations. This paper reports on a survey of carer satisfaction with telephone consultations with doctors in a community service in Lincolnshire, England, for people with learning disabilities. Eleven participants returned a 10-item carer satisfaction questionnaire following telephone consultations over a 4 week period with questions about suitability, effectiveness, efficiency and appropriateness of telephone consultations. Findings indicated a high level of satisfaction with accessibility, effectiveness and suitability. Also, telephone consultations were an efficient use of time. However more than one-third of carers said they would have preferred a face-to-face consultation with the doctor. The paper concludes that, although routine practice in psychiatry, telephone consultations need further research to establish them as an alternative to face-to-face consultations.