The UK COVID-19 response policy includes a recommendation to use alternatives to face-to-face consultations. New guidance has now been published in the British Journal of General Practice to guide GPs in the use of telephone and video consultations.
Top tips for telephone and video consultations about COVID-19 include the following:
- Consider using a checklist to guide and record the consultation.
- Take and record verbal consent for the consultation.
- Establish who you are talking to and what the purpose of the call is.
- Check where the patient is at the moment?
- Check what are the symptoms? Key COVID-19 symptoms are new onset of fever and continuous cough.
- Ask if the patient has any pre-existing conditions?
- Ask about specific signs of deterioration.
- Check if the patient sounds breathless?
- Give clear advice about staying at home.
- Check what medications the patient is taking, in case any might need to be altered or suspended during a period of fever and possible dehydration.
- Always give clear advice on the signs of deterioration to watch out for and what to do in that event.
- Face-to-face consultations should be conducted where there is uncertainty about the diagnosis or severity of symptoms.
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