Coronavirus COVID-19 Expert Update from Speed Medical

March 31st

MedCo has issued a further statement confirming that they have reviewed their previous stance on remote examinations.

Following this advice, as part of our coordinated approach to these unfolding changes in policy, I’ve conducted a thorough review of the guidelines, in consultation with our Chief Medical Officer, Dr Dan Bunstone, so I urge you to please ensure you read my advice in its entirety.

Before I elaborate on the new processes and our advice, please ensure you have read and understood the MedCo update published 31 March 2020 in full by referring to this link:
https://www.medco.org.uk/media/1189/remote-examination-guidelines-v20.pdf

As the situation continues to evolve, our Covid-19 Management Taskforce, Chief Medical Officer and Clinical Advisory Board (CAB) are in place to continuously review the relevant advice from the Government, amend our processes accordingly and keep you updated via direct communication and our website. As such I would like to provide the following directives to you and I must stress that it’s imperative that these conditions are adhered to:

• If you intend to make the professional judgement that it is appropriate for a medical appointment to be carried out by video, you must in the first instance contact the Clinics Team to review the technology solution that you intend to employ for this purpose.
• The team is here to help and support you in the delivery of video appointments and can provide clear guidance on the methods we have scoped and deem appropriate and acceptable.
• Our dedicated team member will then further assist by contacting the instructing solicitor to seek approval for this means of appointment.
• Our support team will then contact the client on your behalf to seek explicit informed consent to be examined by remote means.
• Once we have obtained consent from the instructing party and informed and documented consent from the client, we will contact you to coordinate the appointment.
• It is absolutely imperative that all reports conducted via video appointment contain the following:
  • a. The examination was not a physical one and that it was conducted remotely;
  • b. Whether or not the claimant had received legal advice prior to agreeing to a remote examination; and
  • c. That the informed consent of the claimant was obtained prior to proceeding with the examination

● Recording these appointments is optional, please see the guidance from MedCo related to this.

Please note, this guidance is for MedCo cases only and does not apply to any other case type. If you seek clarity for any other case type I ask that you refer to my previous communication to you as this guidance must be adhered to.

We will continue to remain vigilant and proactive in our approach and together with our Clinical Advisory Board (CAB) we will provide you with commentary on any changes that may affect you, your business and your partnership with us.

The safety and wellbeing of our valued Expert Panel and our clients remains at the absolute heart of our business and we believe compliance with this new advice will deliver enhanced measures to safeguard you, your clinic and your team.

I hope this communication has been helpful. We are here to support you if you have any further questions or queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch by calling the clinics team.

March 19th

We’re living through a period of uncertainty and rapidly changing advice from the Government, however as our valued partner, you can be assured and certain that our priority is keeping you updated and ensuring your wellbeing, and that of your employees and clients, at all times. 

Following yesterday’s update from the Government, we’d like to reassure you that your health is of the utmost importance to us, and while we continue to operate as usual, we have a collaborative Management Taskforce in place to rapidly act and change policies and processes once further changes are made.  

To keep you informed, we are committed to providing you with the most recent updates and this will no doubt be the first communication and opportunity to inform you of Speed Medical’s current operations concerning the COVID-19 outbreak.

Managing symptoms

As frontline clinical staff conducting regular assessments and delivering treatment, we understand you are faced with many challenges on a daily basis. It is of utmost importance that as a valued panel member you adhere to Government guidelines and encourage all of those in your clinic or office to follow the same measures. 

Keeping things moving

We appreciate that the work you do brings you into direct contact with several people on a daily basis, so if you do become unwell and need to cancel your clinics, please inform clients as soon as possible and rearrange any impacted appointments.  I also ask that you please inform us as soon as possible to ensure we can manage the situation with our customers and their clients, while we also look at ways we can support you.

If you are concerned a client is unwell, the client should be asked to leave and their appointment should be rearranged once they have confirmed their recovery at least seven days later. 

For these particular situations, it’s important that you make your own judgement as to whether you are able to work and want to continue with your clinics. I want to impress upon you that there will be absolutely no repercussions for taking any of the above action and we understand these steps are vital to manage the current virus threat.

Managing clients

Our current processes involve contacting clients before an appointment to ensure they are fit to attend. We will continue to do this and have updated all appointment letters to provide detail concerning COVID-19. In addition, to safeguard not only our clients but also you and your team, we are now actively contacting any client that we identify to be classified within the ‘vulnerable’ group, based on the knowledge we have of each client, and all other clients to ensure they are fit, healthy and able to undergo a clinical appointment. 

For particularly vulnerable individuals, we will be proactively rearranging their appointments for a date in line with the very latest Government guidelines. 

If you suspect a client has an underlying health condition that may categorise them as vulnerable, please cancel their appointment and we will rearrange for a date in the future.

Rest assured that we are working closely with our customers on this matter, will update you on any changes to your appointments, and are regularly updating our processes with the Government guidelines to help manage those at risk and protect you and all our valued experts and their support employees.

Video Examinations

Many of our experts have requested to provide digital appointments during this period. We completely understand your reasons for suggesting this, however, after speaking to our customers and seriously reviewing the possibility, we have been advised that this would not be a viable means of conducting assessments. Therefore, digital appointments would currently pose a very real commercial risk for us to accept at this stage.

That said, we will continue to review the use of video examinations and we will make an announcement to you as soon as we are aware of any changes to this guidance. We will also continue to be led by you regarding availability for appointments and would also like to reassure you that any cancelled clinics will not affect any future work with us once we return to a situation where the Covid-19 risk is less volatile to business operations. 

We remain resolutely committed to maintaining partnerships with you, your team and supporting your business. The safety and wellbeing of our valued Expert Panel and our clients are of paramount importance to each and every one of us, not only within the Expert Liaison team but across the business at every level. We’d like to reassure you once again that we have a Management Taskforce continuously reviewing the latest guidance from the Government and we will make any necessary adaptations to processes to safeguard employees and our partners.

While we are continuing with face-to-face appointments, we are taking all precautions necessary and our processes will be continually reviewed.

In the meantime, if you have any further questions or queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch.