A new website—www.doctorinthehouse.net—is calling for healthcare professionals to volunteer for its free virtual consultation service. The aim of the service, according to a press release, is to ease the pressure on the NHS during the COVID-19 outbreak by giving patients first-hand, remote, consultations while the UK is on lockdown.

The press release states that the service can be scaled up at speed to match the severity of the crisis. The goal is for patients to consult on any healthcare issue, without charge, and thus free up resources in the NHS.

The service is, therefore, now recruiting registered doctors (including GPs, urgent care doctors and specialists) as well as specialist nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists and other professionals. Accredited professionals are asked to sign up and volunteer their time, from as little as 20 minutes at a time. The service is looking for clinicians who are working from home, self-isolating, or between shifts. It hopes to supply 100,000 online assessments and 25,000 online appointments by mobilising over 200 at-home clinicians as soon as possible.

According to the press release, the website driven by sophisticated scheduling, industry-leading video conferencing and secure patient note handover systems, all supported by a front-end artificial intelligence (AI) diagnostic tool.