COVID-19 – Outpatients and Diagnostic Testing
Issued by NHS Highland
As part of our preparation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, NHS Highland has cancelled all non-urgent outpatient reviews and diagnostic tests which will enable our staff to support essential services and patient care during the anticipated periods of increased demand on our services.
Prevention of transmission of infection is essential therefore face to face outpatient attendances will be on an exceptional basis only.
While all booked outpatient reviews and diagnostic appointments have been cancelled details of these will be sent to the responsible clinicians for review in order to identify priority / urgent patients. If you are identified as urgent your appointment will be done via telephone or NHS Near Me if at all possible.
If you are identified as urgent and there is a need to see you on a face to face basis you will be screened by telephone for symptoms / risks of COVID-19 by the responsible clinical team prior to your attendance. Please expect to be screened again when you attend your appointment.
Please do not turn up for your outpatient appointment unless you have been instructed to do so.
We appreciate that these arrangements are a considerable departure from usual practice and will cause disruption for a large number of patients. This is not an action that we are taking lightly and hope you understand that these decisions have been made in order to maintain our ability to provide essential patient care and to protect our staff and our communities.
Thank you for your cooperation.