Are telephone reviews the future in outpatient clinic consultations?

ABSTRACT

Aim: The COVID-19 pandemic posed many challenges to healthcare system in the UK. Attempts were made to ensure the provision of treatment, continuity of care and follow-up of the patients. As a result, implementation of telephone consultations was started for most of the outpatient appointments. The aim of this study was to evaluate patient satisfaction and views on this alteration in service. Method: The first 150 patients who had breast clinic appointments delivered by telephone consultation at Ipswich hospital during the pandemic in early 2020 were retrospectively identified and sent a postal survey. The satisfaction levels were assessed through a degree of agreement with statements (four items), yes/no answers (two questions), and space for comments. Results: 142 survey responses were included (94.7% response rate). The majority of patients (n=130) were satisfied with the care they received. Even though almost half of the patients stated that they would like to be seen face-to-face in the hospital, only 10% (n=4) of them stated that they would not like a second phone consultation. Surprisingly,78% (n=117) of patients stated they would be happy for further breast clinic appointments to be carried out in the same way. Conclusions: Our study has shown that telephone consultations are a safe and rapid method of adaptation to the COVID-19 pandemic, achieving high satisfactory rate amongst patients. Our findings suggest that this tool has benefits in post pandemic healthcare delivery. Can telephone reviews be the future in outpatient clinic consultations?.