LAUSR

As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, the effect on healthcare systems, its resources and clinical services have been profound. With the novel coronavirus outbreak being highly contagious, there has been an ever urgent need to devise and identify new models of delivering care to avoid ‘face-to-face’ consultation between clinician and patient and thus reducing the risk of disease transmission. Managing acute trauma and orthopaedics had to be rationalised, reorganised and modified as new guidelines1 2 came into practice. In the UK, the National Health Service England Specialty Guides3 offers the primary guidance and forms the basis of all National Health Service (NHS) Trusts’ responses to this pandemic. Current and evolving telecommunication technologies play a key role in exchange of valid information for diagnosis and management of diseases and injuries. The main modalities for remote consultations include telephone consultations, virtual fracture clinics (VFC) and video consultations (VCs). Remote telephone or VCs provide a vital strategy in the delivery of trauma and orthopaedic healthcare where prevention of disease transmission, for example, current COVID-19 outbreak is of paramount importance by avoiding face-to-face consultation. However, they are appropriate in settings where a clinical interaction can occur over telecommunication channels to provide a continuity of care. Telephone consultations form the primary and readily available modality of remote access alternative to face-to-face consultations to deliver patient care.4 It allows most of the suitable reasons when remote consultation would be appropriate with some limitations.5 It can provide a means of assessing clinical condition and discussing options for managing conditions remotely, for example, assessment of pain—advice such as increasing or decreasing doses of medications or suggesting use of complimentary walking aid to improve mobility after recent surgery. It facilitates …