We are taking forward video conferencing for the 1200 outpatients' clinics that take place on an average day in Wales, alongside essential new features in the Welsh Clinical Portal to support the virtual consultation.
Many clinicians have already used telephone consultations successfully, supported by access to the patient's health record through the Welsh Clinical Portal. This allows clinicians to view patient details from any location - clinic, office or home, making remote consultation possible.
To support virtual appointments a new digital 'outpatient continuation sheet' will allow the clinician to record the appointment outcome online, without needing to use a paper form.
We teamed up with health boards to 'fast-track' this new feature, which will be ready for User Acceptance Testing in early April.
It means that the consultant will be able to use the Welsh Clinical Portal, wherever they are, to access their clinic list, review the patient record , record the details of the consultation and capture the decision, supporting the complete virtual outpatient appointment.
A report will be generated to enable health records staff to track the patient and retrospectively update the Patient Administration System to ensure that the patient pathway is kept up date.
To support the ongoing management of patients during these extraordinary times, we are also working closely with health boards and clinicians to explore ways in which consultants can view their 'Follow up Not Booked List' in the Welsh Clinical Portal. Enabling this access and visibility will help clinicians make an informed decision about the patients that need to be seen urgently and those that can be re-scheduled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
We were contacted this week by Rebecca who wanted to tell us how an important outpatient appointment went ahead - thanks to digital services.
Rebecca has a chronic condition and the appointment with her gastroenterology specialist at University Hospital Wales was critical to her ongoing care and well-being.
As the consultant was self-isolating at home, Rebecca was offered a remote telephone consultation.
She said: "My consultant was able to use the Welsh Clinical Portal from home to access my details and test results. The appointment was just as useful as a face to face appointment and far less stressful. It made such a difference!
"The work you are doing to make digital services available for health and care is fantastic. You are doing such worthwhile stuff, which is really coming together now. Thank you."
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