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Table 1 Descriptions of the Virtual Physical Health Clinic and Consultant Connect services of this evaluation

From: Development and rapid evaluation of services to support the physical health of people using psychiatric inpatient units during the COVID-19 pandemic: study protocol

Virtual Physical Health Clinic

Consultant Connect

The service will offer:

• Two sessions per week of consultant physician time and one session per week of ANP time (one session = half a day).

• A referral system via the SLaM electronic patient journey system (ePJS) with triage of referrals undertaken by members of the research team throughout the week.

• 5 Virtual clinic appointments offered throughout the week via MS Teams.

• Telephone support (30 min daily) for ad hoc queries where staff are unclear what specialism they should consult or where the patient in question has a number of co-morbidities.

• Email response to queries, where requested

• Provide virtual education and training sessions in response to issues identified in clinic referrals.

• Telephone and photo advice service for doctors providing specialist medical advice from colleagues based in local acute Trusts.

• Set up in 2015 and has been used since October 2017 in general practice in Southwark and Lambeth

• Available 9 am–5 pm, Monday–Friday with a few exceptions

• Access is now extended to SLaM inpatient services.

• Can be accessed by phone or app

• Over 60 adult and paediatric specialisms made available to SLaM