Table 4.

Average cost of all initial primary care actions in response to an e-consultation*

All initial response actions	n	% All e-consultations (n=482)	Average cost per e-consultation
GP face-to-face appointments	186	39	£12.73
GP telephone calls	187	39	£7.76
Nurse face-to-face contacts†	70	15	£1.76
Nurse telephone appointments	0	0	£0.00
Prescriptions	151	31	£1.25
Fit notes	31	6	£0.37
Routine referral letters	56	12	£0.67
2-Week wait referral letters	10	2	£0.12
GP given advice by email	125	26	£0.00
Other GP actions	108	22	£0.00
Unknown GP actions	15	3	£0.00
GP-led triage cost			£11.60
Average cost of e-consultation			£36.28

*Staff time collected from individual patient data from eight practices participating in the audit. Triage time of 5 min per e-consultation was assumed based on responses in our companion qualitative study. Staff time valued using 2015 unit costs for health and social care (Curtis and Burns, PSSRU).

†Includes treatment room and tests.

GP, general practitioner.