We are slowly emerging from the initial lockdown containment phase of managing the Covid 19 pandemic. The private hospitals facilities have been contracted to the NHS to help offload the main NHS hospitals. Our local NHS hospitals now have very few Covid positive patients and I hope that will mean than outpatients at the Nuffield and Montefiore will resume over the coming weeks. However, at the moment we are being asked to conduct as many consultations as possible virtually and only treat urgent patients face to face at the hospital. I am conducting virtual appointments using telephone or video on Mondays and Wednesdays.
We are asking all patients to take photographs of their skin condition or skin lesion (Guidelines for patient photography), complete an information form (Skin lesion form for patients) and send them to us in an email ahead of a scheduled appointment to janet.dix@jldmedicalteam.co.uk. We are setting up video appointments for patients who have video capabilities (smart phones, tablets & computers with webcam appointment) using Webex https://www.webex.com. You don’t need an account and can follow the links that will be emailed to you to join the call. If you want to use a smart phone or tablet, there is an App available and I would recommend you download this in advance and test it out.
It has been quite amazing how well a dermatologist can function virtually with photographs and video. I am using a company Pharmacierge to prescribe online and have any prescriptions delivered to you within a few days. Patients requiring operations are being pre-assessed now and then as soon as it is safe to schedule an operation, we will organise this for you. In short, there is still a lot that can be done now and we are very much available to help you.
Virtual consultations are recognised by the majority of private medical insurers.