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Virtual tours in healthcare are far more than just a legal reasonable adjustment for disabled patients
Used properly, a virtual tour of a healthcare location, such as a the ones used at Morrab Surgery and a number of NHS Trusts, can help reduce missed appointments, ease pressure on reception teams, support reasonable adjustments*, and improve uptake for clinics and recalls. They have additional value built-in.
A practice can use direct tour links in appointment texts, reminders and recall messages so patients can see exactly where they need to go before they arrive. E.g. “An appointment has been booked for you with Sarah Francis, Nurse Practitioner, on the first floor of the surgery. The first floor can be accessed via stairs or a lift. This link opens a virtual tour of the surgery and allows you to see where the room is located and what you are likely to see when you enter the room.”
That means less uncertainty, less anxiety, fewer basic direction calls, and a better experience for patients who find unfamiliar healthcare settings difficult.
A tour can also support real operational priorities, not just marketing.
Think screening, vaccinations, first appointments, new patient registrations, carers, anxious patients, autistic patients, dementia patients, and anyone who is more likely to attend if they know what to expect in advance.
This is where healthcare providers could and should be making more of an asset a growing number of them already have.
Morrab Surgery in Penzance is a good example of a practice making its virtual tour available to patients. The wider opportunity for primary care is to use tools like this far more actively in day to day patient communication.
Chris Wood
Owner – Ocean3D.co.uk
*Always ensure that any virtual tour is WCAG (International Standards for digital accessibility) compliant.
*Doughty Street Chambers legal opinion link: https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:eu:30876632-bb90-49ff-a9f2-6315604054ad
At Ocean 3D we believe that any and all virtual tours to aid accessibility should comply with WCAG standards. Since Summer 2025, all new Ocean 3D Ltd clients tours are delivered with Accessible Virtual Tour (AVT™) patented WCAG overlay as standard. Ocean 3D encourages all new and existing clients to
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