The Holographic Doctor And The Deckchair Attendant

Peter Coglan

November 7, 2025

The Digital NHS Doorway. We are told this is what people are demanding. Who is telling us that? The people who are trying to sell it.

This is just my opinion; I may not be right. The information I give may be inaccurate. I say this as we live in a world where opinion is presented as fact, and we are told how to feel about events, rather than be given the facts and then form our own opinion. Put another way, brainwashing; gaslighting. The 21st Century.

Fans of Star Trek will remember the doctor character ‘Bones’ McCoy in the original series. 30 year later Star Trek Voyager came on our screens. In Episode 1 the star ship’s chief doctor and nurse were killed. For the rest of the series the doctor’s replacement was the EMH (Emergency Medical Hologram), a holographic doctor who could be summoned when required.

And now, here we are in 2025, post-lockdowns and restrictions of 2020/2021. Our government proudly boasts it has created 5 million extra NHS appointments. A recent public announcement on X trumpets that we all want digital access to NHS services.

Really? I don’t recall being asked. Nor do I know anyone who has been asked. Perhaps I am out of touch. I no longer watch TV news or current affairs programmes, nor do I read national newspapers - I don't trust them to report facts properly. So to the government, I presume I am persona non grata.

Some years ago a facility called eConsult appeared on the website of the GP practice where I am registered. You could raise a health question or request for help at any time, for review by a doctor. It became more popular, so availability had to be restricted to surgery hours. Cue lockdown.

It became even more popular and just about the only way you could make contact with the practice. The daily limit was reached before11am most days. As for the phone, you had to sit through a 3 minute ramble about how busy they were in very trying circumstances before joining the queue at number 18 or even higher.

So it continued from then on; eConsult offline by 11am, the surgery empty when you dared broach its hallowed portals. A practice that used to resemble a hypermarket in Christmas week most days, began to look more like Dodge City when the outlaws rode in.

I am told that on 1 October this year practices were instructed that eConsult had to be available during all surgery hours. I just tried ours (at approximately 2pm) - the response?

“Follow the link below for routine requests. For help with a medical problem, please try again from 8am tomorrow.” To be fair, the idea of GPs overwhelmed and spending all day dealing with online forms rather than seeing patients is appalling. Pre lockdown our practice had 5 and 10 minute appointment slots. Now the few slots available are 15 minutes long, better for a more complex consultation , but bad for patient numbers.

So what has been achieved? Basically the deckchairs have been moved. The eConsult does not have to be answered till the end of the next day. People go to A&E rather than wait, but A&E is also overwhelmed. The GP appointments are now up to 4 weeks in the future. Even blood test results and X ray results are taking longer. So overall, no progress. There could be 5 billion more ‘appointments’ (whatever that means to the government bean counters) but I doubt the service would be any better or faster.

Consequently the politicians see AI as their saviour. I have talked about this before in an article called ‘Points Of Failure’. AI will almost certainly be used to review the eConsults (perhaps it already is, anyone know?). AI will definitely manage the booking systems. AI will be probably be in the operating theatre, on the wards, in all medical departments.

Then what? Less jobs in the health sector. In some ways that could help, but do the public want unemployed medical practitioners? Well for one person, we’ll call them ‘Wes’, or ‘Vicky’, or ‘Therese’ or ‘Matt’ (on second thoughts, no, definitely not ‘Matt’) this seems to be the ultimate vision, an army of holographic doctors with their tricorders. At their side is a beaming ‘Wes’ in his boater and striped jacket with a bale of sun towels, having finally got the deckchairs organised.

56 years ago Zager and Evans sang ‘In The Year 2525’. As we reach the end of 2025 their future nightmare seems well under 500 years away.

© Peter Coglan 2025

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