“…For patients who have recently had surgery, telenursing can provide assessment, reassurance and advice for patients after discharge (O'Brien et al, 1999) and reduce the need for follow-up outpatient appointments (Pidd et al, 2000). Some studies have shown that patients are satisfied with telephone follow-up (Pal, 1998;Weinberger, 1998;Pidd et al, 2000;Uppal et al, 2003) but Eaton et al (2002) found in a study of otolaryngology patients that those who received follow-up care in the form of a physician telephone call were significantly less satisfied with this than patients receiving an outpatient consultation. They postulated that this was because some patients may prefer to see the physician face to face, that the appointment length, which was shorter for the telephone call, may have meant that patients felt they did not have sufficient time to have their questions and concerns addressed, and that some patients had to wait up to 20 min from the agreed call time before they were rung and this may have affected their perception.…”