Outpatients
Since you can book online blood-tests, it is so easy! It took minutes to go on, and there were lots of choices. There's a gap between patients. I arrived a few minutes early, wearing my mask and no-one was waiting
Transplant recipient, UK
Patients don’t always want to share their medical details with family members. We need to check that patients have access to a private space for the consultation
Pan-London virtual After Action Review, Reflections on managing COVID-19
Traditional outpatient care provides a secure environment for a face-to-face consultation for a health-care professional to work with a patient to address their long-term care needs. This model has not been deliverable during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Across the UK, renal services have rapidly developed new care models including telephone and video consultations, e-consultations, working in primary care databases, and utilising diagnostic hubs for blood and urine tests. Face-to-face consultations have been reserved for patients with unstable medical problems.
Some of these changes will endure after the pandemic and will become embedded in mainstream medical practice. We must now evaluate the patient experience of these new models of care and assess their clinical efficacy. There should be a particular focus on addressing inequality in healthcare access and outcomes, an area of profound concern further exposed by COVID-19.
Do you have experience of how kidney units managed outpatient services during COVID-19?
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Shared learning
- Learning from one renal outpatient unit’s transformation in response to COVID-19
University Hospitals Birmingham - Review of London kidney teams’ response to COVID-19, March-June 2020
South London renal clinical alliance, North London kidney clinical advisory group - Drive-Through Phlebotomy Service
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust - Mobile blood testing service
Kings College Hospital, NHS Foundation Trust - Introducing a web-app for remote guided self-management of renal patients
Wessex Kidney Centre, Portsmouth
