This article covers:
Finding and using paediatric eConsults as a patient
Patients can access the paediatric questionnaires by clicking on the ‘I want help for my child’ option, either through the practice’s website banner or on the main eConsult landing page. You can see what these look like on the eConsult demo site.
Key things to note:
Parents or guardians are able to submit paediatric eConsults for children aged 6 months up to 16 years.
Patients aged between 16+ are able to access the adult content and submit eConsults directly.
It is not possible for parents to submit eConsults for patients below the age of 6 months for safety reasons – these patients should be seen by a clinician.
We will ask the person completing the eConsult some questions about themselves as well as some questions about the child that they are completing the eConsult on behalf of.
Parents and guardians in England are also able to use the NHS App to consult on behalf of their child if they are registered at the same practice.
Practice management of paediatric eConsults
Workflow and triage
Paediatric eConsults will be received in your practice in the same way as adult eConsults. We recommend colour coding paediatric eConsults in a different colour to your adult eConsults in your appointment book.
Closing paediatric eConsults
Historically, paediatric eConsults could only be closed with a telephone call as a minimum. We sought guidance from Clinical Negligence Scheme in December 2020 and they confirmed that there is no longer a requirement to close paediatric consultations with a face to face or telephone consultation as part of the indemnity that covers eConsult. However, we would still consider it good practice to do so.
Our post-consult messaging facility can be used to send a one-way response to the patient, parent or guardian around the next steps.
Photo uploads for paediatric eConsults
Some paediatric templates allow patients, parents or guardians to upload photos to assist the clinician in understanding the patient’s request for advice. We ask the user for consent at the point of uploading. All photo upload questions are optional and do not need to be completed by the user.
Under data protection law, the practice is the Data Controller, therefore any images received and uploaded into the clinical record will fall under the practice information governance and GDPR policies. eConsult doesn’t store or retain any of these images.
How can I get paediatric eConsults for my practice?
Paediatric condition templates are available for all practices at no additional cost.
If your practice has an extended clinical response time beyond ‘the end of the next working day’ then due to clinical risk paediatric eConsults are not available.
If you do not have paediatric eConsults enabled but would like to, please contact practice.support@econsult.health.
If you have any questions or you feel that this article could be improved, please feel free to give us some feedback by emailing us, pressing the emojis below or using the chat button on the bottom right-hand side of this page to speak to one of the eConsult team.