GPs plan revolution in 'e-care' with psychotherapy over the internet

Sessions with a psychologist are usually face-to-face encounters with the parties speaking from the comfort of armchairs.

Sessions with a psychologist are usually face-to-face encounters with the parties speaking from the comfort of armchairs. But for the first time, NHS patients are to be offered treatment in a virtual chatroom over the internet.

People suffering from depression and less serious mental disorders will log on to a computer and disclose their problems to a therapist, whom they have never met, in a frank "conversation" online.

Milton Keynes Primary Care Trust is negotiating with a private practice of qualified psychologists to offer the electronic counselling service on a trial basis.

Two large GP practices are expected to pilot the service offered by Psychology Online, which could be extended to other parts of the NHS if it proves a success.

Barbara Kennedy, chief executive of the Milton Keynes PCT, said the trust wanted to widen access to treatment because it had too few staff to cope with demand.

If patients with less severe problems could be treated online, then the trust's own psychologists could concentrate on patients with more severe mental illnesses.

Before the trial received the go-ahead, she said the trust had to be sure that the confidentiality of patients would be protected and that no one who was traumatised at the end of a session was cut off.

But she said that if the potential pitfalls were overcome, "e-care" had great potential. "We are the first area, but we are not running into it with our eyes closed.It has got pitfalls as well as potential. But this is the direction of travel in the future, no doubt about it."

Dr Sue Wright and Dr Nadine Field, the chartered psychologists who launched the online practice, have recruited 125 experienced psychologists who will consult private or NHS clients.

Dr Wright said: "We both work for the NHS and we know the long waiting lists for patients. Nine months is not an outlandish amount of time.

"We are targeting the less severe end of the demand, people with mild anxiety or depression, for whom there is often no one else to go to."

Under the NHS project, doctors will screen patients to make sure they are appropriate for the 50-minute online sessions, paid for by the trust.

When a psychologist experienced in the right area has been chosen, the patient will arrange an online appointment. At the chosen time, the two strangers will start to "converse" via a secure chatroom, protected by encryption.