More virtual appointments as outpatient services move

Tuesday 20 April 2021

More virtual appointments will be offered to islanders for outpatient clinics and assessments prior to surgery as services move to the former Les Quennevais School, to allow construction work to take place at Overdale.

The change in process was highlighted in the newly-published Functional Brief for Les Quennevais - a document outlining exactly which services would be included in the temporary health facility.

The Government announced in January that Les Quennevais School would be used to provide some medical services,  while construction begins on the new hospital, with a public engagement programme drawn up by UK consultation firm Soundings.

It will be refurbished later this year at a cost of £10m, with services being moved from December 2021 and remaining there while the new hospital is being built.

The Functional Brief states how the facility should be arranged to provide care to patients while Overdale is undergoing work as well as any additional requirements for each service.

It outlined how, while there will be more outpatient clinic rooms available at the former school building than there currently is at Overdale, more appointments will be available virtually. 

Speaking about the change, Professor Ashok Handa, the Clinical Director for the 'Our Hospital' project, told Express this was part of a drive to offer more "flexibility".

Pictured: Professor Ashok Handa, the Clinical Director for the 'Our Hospital' project.

The professor explained it is an “aspiration of all high performing health services across the word” to minimise the number of attendances. He added that as a result of the pandemic, more and more people have preferred virtual clinics.

“Anyone who needs to see a clinician face to face will have that facility available,” he said. “The provision is bigger overall than what’s currently provided now.”

“More and more people are preferring virtual clinics,” he added. “Across 10 hospitals in the UK, during and after covid people were given appointments in the hospital and they were scared of coming into the hospital because of the risk of infection.”

Some assessments prior to surgery will also take place over the phone, unless a physical examination is required. 

“If you are 22 and you are fit and healthy, you can have all your pre-assessment done on the phone, because most of the answers to the questions are going to be ‘no’ and the likelihood of needing blood tests is quite low. In the current model, these people are still spending an hour having that done at the hospital,” Professor Handa said.

“In other cases, you can have some of the questions done in the comfort of your own home but some of the questions will require you to see someone face-to-face. 

“We are making it a more flexible, more patient-centred approach. Some will need full face-to-face assessment, some will have a combination, and some will have it all done from home.” 

Pictured: “Anyone who needs to see a clinician face to face will have that facility available,” Professor Handa assured.

In addition to setting the clinical requirements for each service, the Functional Brief also highlighted the need for the facilities to be “family-friendly, dementia-friendly and non-institutional”.

It also indicates the facility’s corridors, lifts and doorways should take into account the size of wheelchairs, which are becoming “larger and more complex."

Meanwhile, a sensory room has been recommended for the Child Development and Therapy Centre’s waiting room, to provide support to patients waiting as well as forming part of the therapy provision.