About virtual consultations

What is a virtual consultation?

A virtual consultation is a video or telephone appointment, which allows you to speak to a consultant or private GP without the need to travel to a Spire hospital. You’ll have fast access to our medical specialists and have the opportunity to discuss your health concerns at your own convenience.

How long is a virtual consultation?

A virtual GP appointment is 30 minutes. The length of virtual appointments with a consultant may vary.

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Step 1

Find and book a consultant online or by phone

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Step 2

We’ll confirm your appointment and send an invite for your video or telephone consultations

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Step 3

Join the video meeting or use the dial-in details to start your appointment

Once you’ve booked your appointment we’ll send you a confirmation and details of how to join the video meeting and dial-in details for telephone appointments. If for any reason we feel that a virtual consultation would not be appropriate for your symptoms or concerns we will contact you to discuss this further and what other options are available.

Your consultant will write to you with the outcome of the consultation and details of any tests or follow up you might need.

If you need further tests, such as blood tests or imaging, we’ll arrange these for you. You’ll need to visit a Spire hospital for these appointments taking into consideration the latest advice from the UK government on coronavirus. Learn more

If you’re prescribed medication, your consultant will send this to you to take to a retail pharmacy. Certain medications may be issued by a Spire pharmacy and they’ll let you know when your medication is ready to pick up.

Joining your virtual consultation

You’ll receive an email with a link to a Zoom meeting invitation. Check that the invite hasn’t gone into your spam folder.

You should join the meeting up to 10 minutes before your appointment start time to make sure you are ready. Make sure you’re somewhere quiet where you feel comfortable discussing your health.

Help and support

Manage your camera and microphone audio

Check that the microphone and camera on your PC or device are set up before your appointment. You can find more information for these browsers:

Google Chrome 

Firefox 

 

Connection problems

If there are problems with your Internet connection, Zoom will attempt to reconnect you to the meeting when the connection is available.

 

Using telephone consultation

You can join the Zoom meeting by phone if you’re unable to join by video. Dial-in details are listed in the appointment invitation.

 

I have concerns about using Zoom. Will my appointment be secure?

Zoom has exploded in popularity as people turn to video conferencing amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. With this extra attention, Zoom is now facing a backlash from security experts, advocates and IT professionals warning that default settings are not secure enough.

The privacy of our patient data is paramount. Spire Healthcare has made changes in our corporate Zoom settings to ensure we keep our video conferencing secure. Our online consultations only use the video conferencing feature and we do not allow file sharing and in-conference chat. We use unique, strongly encrypted meeting codes for each meeting and our staff receive training on how to schedule and conduct meetings, including monitoring their attendees to ensure they know and validate who is attending.

We work closely with Zoom on its application roadmap and ongoing development to ensure the platform remains secure. When vulnerabilities are discovered, we promptly apply updates to our corporate environment. We’ll continue to review our use of Zoom, ensuring it meets our high expectations in terms of security and information privacy.