A reflection on an adapted approach from face-to-face to telephone consultations in our Urology Outpatient Department during the COVID-19 pandemic - a pathway for change to future practice?

Abstract

The sudden and unanticipated coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) viral pandemic of 2020 and its profound impact on the NHS prompted an almost overnight change in the services we are able to offer our patients to fulfil clinical demands. From March 2020, we have changed outpatient appointments from face-to-face to telephone-led consultations. We have performed an early review of this service to ensure its sustainability during the unknown duration of this current crisis and to establish its potential utility when normal services resume in the future. Our present results show a patient satisfaction of 93%, with 83% happy to have telephone follow-up in the future, and a clinician satisfaction of 82% in the adequacy of the telephone consultation for making a clinical decision. Telephone clinics are a safe and efficient alternative to face-to-face outpatient consultations for many patients, particularly non-complex benign follow-ups.