The management of symptomatic BPH is evolving and there is now an expanding portfolio of minimally invasive surgical therapies (MISTs). These provide an attractive option for men looking for meaningful improvement in urinary symptoms, whilst avoiding the risks of adverse effects, particularly with regards to maintaining sexual function.

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Introduction: The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic of 2020 had a major impact on NHS services. From the 23rd of March 2020, the Urology Department in Basingstoke initiated telephone-led consultation clinicsinstead of face-to-face outpatient appointments, in accordance with U.K. guidance.Objectives: To evaluate patient experience and satisfaction following the introduction of remote (telephone) consultations during the COVID-19 pandemic.Patients and methods: The first 200 remote patient appointments between the 30th of March 2020 and the 16th of April 2020 were sent a postal questionnaire (19 questions relating to their experience and level of satisfaction with the interaction). Telephone consultations were conducted by 6 consultants, 3 registrars, and 2 specialist nurses. The patients were not prewarned to expect a questionnaire after the remote ap-pointment. The associated cost saving resulting from a switch from face-to-face appointments to remote telephone appointments was also calculated.Results: 100 out of the 200 patients responded within 1 month (response rate 50%). A total of 44% of the patients were new referrals, while 56% were follow-ups. Overall, the feedback was positive regarding the telephone consultation, with 88% rating the care received as excellent or very good. In addition, 90% would recommend a telephone consultation to family and friends. However, 35% would prefer in the future to have another telephone consultation rather than face-to-face consultation, with 46% preferring a face-to-face appointment in the future and 19% unsure. For new patients, the proportion wishing to have a face-to-face appointment, in the end, was unsurprisingly higher than it was for those undergoing a follow-up (39% vs. 7 %). In these 2 weeks, the cost reduction to the NHS from shifting from face-to-face consultation to telephone consultation was estimated to be £6500.Conclusions: Telephone urology clinics are a satisfactory alternative to face-to-face appointments for many of our patients now and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. They are efficient, cost-effective, and feasible to undertake urological consultation and can be implemented successfully in selected patients. The feedback from this questionnaire would suggest that priority should be given to face-to-face appointments for new patients and for complex follow-up appointments. Telephone follow-up appointments, however, are a good approach for the majority of patients.

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Background and ObjectiveFollowing on from the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) recommendation of 5th of April 2020 to perform computed tomography (CT) scan of the chest in patients presenting with an abdominal pain emergencies and undergoing an abdominal CT; comparison was made between a cohort of patients with a RCS-COVID recommended scan and a similar group of patients in the pre-COVID era. To evaluate the value of extending CT-KUB scan to include the chest area, in patients presenting to the emergency department with acute renal colic during the COVID-19 pandemic. Material and MethodsRetrospective data included; initial presentation, COVID-19-related symptoms, dose length product (DLP), scan extension, Ground glass appearance (GGO), Wuhan corona virus swab polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. ResultsA total of 100 patients underwent CT KUB in April 2020 (Group 1) with a similar number of patients from the pre-COVID-19 pandemic randomly selected from August to October 2019 (Group 2). Patients age ranged from 15 to 91 years with a median of 48 years in Group 1, whilst in Group 2 the range was 19 to 85 years with a median of 50 years. All patients in both groups initially presented with renal colic. No COVID-19-related respiratory manifestations were recorded. Nine patients from Group 1 had GGO identified in their chest CT with all of them returning with negative COVID-19 swabs. Interestingly there was almost the same number of stones diagnosed 49% (49/ 100) in Group 1 patients compared with 50% (23/5150/100) from Group 2. ConclusionsDespite the RCS COVID CT scan recommendations, our study has demonstrated no significant additional value of extending the CT-KUB to include the chest area in renal colic patients with no respiratory manifestations. Further studies are recommended in order to validate these results.