Phone or skype consultation due to Covid19

[gibson100]

Greetings All,

I have my quarterly clinic review in 3 weeks with blood tests etc etc.

I attend Royal Free Hospital in London.It appears to be Corona Central at the moment so I am loath to hang around there at all.

Has anyone had experience of switching to phone/skype consultation instead?

And getting bloods done elsewhere?

I haven't heard from them and was hoping to get some information before contacting them next week.

Thanks

[May7]

I have a follow up Nephrology appointment due this week, which my hospital has changed to a telephone appointment. I was to have a set of blood tests done for the consultant the day before, but have been told these won't be necessary under the circumstances.

[Lone-wolf]

I also attend the Royal Free for out patient appointments.Last week I received a text from Cardiology saying that my appointment had been cancelled but that the Consultant would contact me within three weeks of that appointment time. In regards regular blood tests it is said by Phlebotomy clinic that these will still need to be carried out so that the consultant will know how you are progressing. However as this is now done by appointment only (see Royal Free Hospital/blood tests) you should only be there for five minutes. As it is, I'm still waiting for Rheumatology and Neurology to contact me.

[jgold]

I'm also with the Royal Free. They seem to be quite well organised to deal with this. Bloods (if your consultant thinks them necessary) are by appointment and a search of their website shows they can be done at Chase Farm and at Finchley Memorial as well as at the Royal Free itself.

I suggest wait to see if they contact you. If you've not heard a week before your appointment, then contact them. I assume you are seen by Alan Salama or Sally Hamour in the nephrology department; their direct contact details are at royalfree.nhs.uk/services/s... . I emailed Alan on another matter a few days ago and expected a long wait for a reply, but in fact he answered within a couple of hours.

[jgold]

Further this, I went to the Royal Free A&E on Saturday - happily with a good outcome. Right at the entrance there was a security man who asked my reason for attending. He directed me to the separate A&E entrance rather than go through the main hospital. At the A&E I was questioned by medical staff just inside the door. Satisfied that I had good reason for attending and had no Covid symptoms, they gave me a green card as authority to enter an alternative temporary A&E. Later I had to go for a chest x-ray, which meant entering the main hospital ground floor. This was almost totally deserted and there was no-one else in the x-ray department. The radiographer said that everything had been split into two to prevent contact between Covid and non-Covid people.

So if you are asked to attend this hospital, I think you can be confident that the risks have been minimised as far as humanly possible.