Patient survey of epilepsy virtual clinics during the COVID 19 pandemic

Objective: Due to the COVID 19 pandemic, the paediatric complex epilepsy service changed rapidly from face to face clinics to virtual clinics The Evelina London Complex epilepsy team was involved in the RCPCH EQIP collaborative pilot, our project was adapted to investigate patient experience and satisfaction for Virtual consultation Methods: We designed a questionnaire consisting of 19 questions 15 were multiple choice questions and three were qualitative Patients were selected randomly from virtual clinic booking lists from March to July 2020 The questionnaires were completed using telephone interview with parents Results: We obtained feedback from 20 families Response rate was 100% 17/20 (85%) of the responders rated the quality of virtual consultations compared with face to face as good (n=11) and excellent (n=6) Similarly, 17/20 (85%) were very satisfied (n=10) or satisfied (n=7) with virtual consultations 14/20 (70%) responders felt it respected confidentiality However 5/20 (25%) responders reported technical issues during the consultation Given a choice on ongoing epilepsy consultations, 8/20 responders preferred to continue virtual consultations, 6/20 would prefer face to face appointments, 5/20 chose both virtual and face to face depending on the circumstances and 1/20 preferred a phone clinic Qualitative feedback included "With face to face clinics my child gets a personal connection with the Consultant who can also examine her" Others supported virtual appointments "If routine check-up or discussion of seizure diary and management then virtual is easier" Responders gave suggestions for how their virtual experience can be improved Conclusion: Virtual clinic consultations are usually acceptable to parents Our survey demonstrates that the majority of families would also like to have a continued option for a face to face clinic and it highlighted improvements that can be made with virtual consultations Continued survey of parent/carers and patients throughout the pandemic and beyond will aid to inform organisation of outpatient epilepsy services