The health secretary ran into IT issues while remotely speaking at a GP conference.
Matt Hancock was due to address the RCGP conference in Liverpool this morning with his ministerial speech. However, as ministers are still debating the Queen’s speech in Parliament, he could not attend the conference, resorting to a live video link.
The quality of the call appeared mediocre and cut, which left the audience of thousands of GPs and other healthcare professionals unable to hear what he was saying at times.
Aware of the issue, Mr Hancock said: ‘It’s great to be able to join you today through the wonders of modern technology. And if this call cuts out, it’s probably due to the patchy Wifi in Westminster rather than a failure with the tech.’
Dr Heather Ryan, a GP in Derbyshire, tweeted: ‘@MattHancock attempts to dial in to address #RCGPAC via video link. The sound quality is so bad that he’s hard to follow at times. He couldn’t have contrived a better demonstration of the limitations of Skype consultations if he’d tried.’
. @MattHancock attempts to dial in to address #RCGPAC via video link. The sound quality is so bad that he’s hard to follow at times. He couldn’t have contrived a better demonstration of the limitations of Skype consultations if he’d tried. #TeamGP pic.twitter.com/s6fJGbYeHU
— Heather Ryan (Heather Cosgrove) (@DrHFRyan) October 24, 2019
In June, GPs who were part of a video consultation pilot advised the NHS to not roll out the scheme until there was ‘improved technical infrastructure’.
