P.44 Telephone anaesthetic preoperative consultation: Patient satisfaction service evaluation

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated rapid changes to services to minimise the risk of viral transmission, including widespread adoption of remote consultation methods.1 From April 2020, we changed our pre-operative assessment service for elective caesarean section (CS) patients from a face-to-face consultation 1-3 days before admission to a telephone-based service. This included signposting to an electronic version of our patient information leaflet (PIL), which was previously poorly accessed.2 A service evaluation was conducted to assess patient satisfaction of this new approach. Methods: A voluntary, anonymous, 15-point questionnaire was offered on admission to elective caesarean section patients from May to October 2020. Distribution continued until fifty responses were received. Responses were collected post-operatively. Results: 98% of respondents (49) rated the care provided during the consultation as very good or excellent. 92% (46) expressed either no preference or would prefer a telephone consultation if given a choice, whilst only 8% (4) said they would prefer to attend hospital for face-to-face consultation. Two respondents reported hearing impairment, though still rated the consultation as very good or excellent. 82% (41) of respondents felt better prepared for their CS than prior to the consultation. 68% (34) were aware of the patient information leaflet (compared with 21-35% previously)2 and 80% of these had found it useful. Discussion: The telephone preoperative consultation appears overall effective and satisfactory for most patients, however a formal pathway for patients with language or communication needs that preclude telephone consultation is required. Holding the consultation prior to admission appears to help women feel more prepared for admission, and awareness of the PIL has improved. The service evaluation was limited by its convenience sampling.