With an ageing population and increasing pressures on all orthopaedic services, it is vital that we are able to develop efficient and acceptable means to streamline the patient journey. Our department uses telephone review appointments for selected patients to reduce the need for additional visits to the outpatient clinic. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of this approach, and to determine whether it was acceptable to patients.

We identified all patients who had received a first-time telephone review appointment within a four month period. Using a short structured telephone questionnaire they were asked about their experiences of the process, whether they had subsequently required a clinic visit, and whether they would have preferred to be seen in person in the clinic.

50 of the 55 (91%) patients were successfully contacted, and all gave consent to participate. Reasons for follow-up included post-operative discectomy and lumbar decompression, post-nerve root injection, and MRI results. All patients (100%) were satisfied with the telephone consultation. Only 8 (16%) would have preferred a clinic appointment with 5 of these subsequently visiting the clinic. 32 (64%) of the patients did not require a further clinic appointment for the same problem. 32 (64%) of patients stated that they were very satisfied with the overall follow-up process with the remaining 18 (36%) being satisfied.

Our study has shown that using telephone review follow-up for selected patients is effective at reducing the number of clinic visits, and is acceptable to patients.