LAUSR

INTRODUCTION The World Health Organisation declared a global pandemic of COVID19 on 11 March 2020.1 Due to the risk of transmission in dental settings, the Chief Dental Officer of England issued instructions to cease all routine dental services in England on 25 March 2020.2 The University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) is a fully computerised trust, and the electronic health record system (EHRS) is fully accessible remotely. To ensure continuity of care for our patients, two telephone clinics (teleclinics) were successfully piloted on 8 April 2020 and a new teleclinic service was launched. Teleclinics were initially restricted to existing patients triaged specifically for this service, which included those who were ready for discharge and those awaiting eruption of teeth or further development. Positive feedback from staff and parents/patients encouraged extension of the service to new patients from 12 May 2020 and to all existing patients from 14 May 2020. A Standard Operating Protocol (SOP) was issued to a shared online workspace on 14 May 2020. Teleclinics are a new service and are a new way of working in dentistry. Therefore, a service evaluation was completed to assess its use and clinician practices and to inform local decisionmaking.