Telehealth and primary care: a special collection from BJGP Open

Overall I found this collection very informative about the benefits of telemedicine and its role within primary care. However, I can't help but feel that an important benefit was missed: the environmental benefits. There are potentially large carbon savings associated with widespread appropriate use of telemedicine.

Given that telemedicine can be done with the patient being remote or both the patient and clinician being remote, overall travel to surgeries would be reduced. Considering that 17% of total NHS emissions and 45.7% of an individual practice's total yearly carbon emissions are directly from patient and staff travel, the environmental impact of utilising remote consultations could be vast. Therefore, effective and appropriate use of telemedicine could be a vital way to help improve the sustainability of our healthcare system, as well as achieving the other social benefits discussed in the collection.