Preop assessment by phone??

[Zippytwo]

Hi, I am due to have surgery soon to remove a metal plate in my arm ( from an earlier injury). I have received an invite today to a telephone pre operative assessment. Is this normal? I expected a face to face appt. The op will require a general anaesthetic.

has anyone else had a telephone preop? What does it involve? Seems strange

Yes I've had several telephone pre op conversations.
They ask general questions about your health, medications you're on, any experience with previous anaesthetics, explain what will happen and will let you ask them any questions you might have.
It's quite common and speeds things up.

Very common 😊

Oh ok, thank you. I’m quite a nervous patient and was hoping for a proper check up. Did they do another pre op before your surgery?

I had a telephone pre op. When they realised how many comorbidities I had, they organised a face to face. But for relatively healthy people, over the phone would be fine. They can ask about any health conditions, any medications, any known drug allergies, whether you've had any anaesthetics before and how you reacted, what your height and weight are...

I suspect they will run through the questionnaire and if anything is flagged as out of the ordinary they will invite you in for a face-to-face.

Wish I could have a telephone one! I’ve already filled forms in their App,no red flags that I’m aware of but still warned to allow two hours for face to face apt. I’ve had to book morning off work. Last Apt they said the same and it literally took less than 10mins with consultant and I walked away thinking geez I’ve spent an hour driving here and booked half day off work for a few minutes chat that could have easily been done on the phone! Not efficient at all, but I’ll just be bloomin glad to finally get the procedure done after waiting so long.

I have just had surgery. First I was sent an appointment for a telephone pre op appointment. I was a bit surprised like you, as I thought they would want to see me. At the telephone appt they went through a health questionnaire and then then said I would receive a further face to face appointment. At the second appointment they did blood pressure, weighed me, took bloods to test and also swabs for mrsa etc. It is standard here to do telephone and then face to face apparently - it wasn't because something was flagged, they were always going to do both. So you might find you get similar?

I had a telephone pre op followed by a face to face to do bloods and check blood pressure etc.