A video or telephone consultation has been something that historically didn’t have a place in urgent community care. Integrating technology into the local Clinical Assessment Service (CAS) and linking with primary care has been sluggish to get off the ground due to logistical and operational barriers. However, when COVID-19 started to take hold and high volumes of face to face appointments were no longer possible, one of the major transformations in urgent care was integrating remote and video consultations into the framework and the benefits have been seen for patients up and down the country. 
Avoiding unnecessary face to face contacts, potentially exposing patients and clinicians to COVID-19 was the primary purpose to hardwire these into the system however there were a number of other benefits. Patients, in the first instance, could stay in the comfort of their own homes plus this technology meant they were efficiently triaged, and patient flow was managed in the local healthcare system – often resulting in a quicker, improved outcome. 
 
Moving forward, there is a balance to be struck and it must be driven by patients and their individual needs. Telephone consultations might prove more effective when dealing with some patients – especially where English is not their first language. In addition, there are some patient presentations that need to be seen face to face – whilst others can be dealt with remotely. 
 
Now, with SELDOC integral in re-establishing local care in the wake of the initial COVID-19 peak, they are well established to ensure that this balance is struck, and remote consultations will be hardwired into the system moving forward. 
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