Safety netting in the COVID-19 Clinical Assessment Service

The authors complement and contrast your granular study of routine face-to-face GP consultations with their experience of unscheduled remote GP assessments in the COVID-19 Clinical Assessment Service (CCAS). A small clinical assurance team reviewed the recorded audio and written clinical notes for 5738 consults undertaken between April 2020 and May 2021 against a standardised, COVID-19-adapted version of the Royal College of General Practitioners Urgent and Emergency Care Clinical Audit Toolkit. Approximately 1500 GPs throughout England spanned all career stages and included those returning from retirement to support the pandemic response (Emergency Registered Practitioners). Patients across the age span presented possible COVID-19 symptoms. Safety netting was reviewed taking account of the context of the individual consult. integrated NHS Pathways safety-netting templates were available.