A week is a long time in a pandemic! At the start of last week Clinical Partners had 22 clinics across the UK hosting thousands of patient appointments. By the end of the week we’d held our last physical appointments. And now – thanks to a herculean effort by the whole team - we’re now offering all our appointments online.

Thank you for your patience and understanding

In the face of all the current difficulties, it’s heartening that people can be so understanding. Having made a lot of changes very quickly, we appreciate that it’s created uncertainty around some appointments. However the response has been over-whelmingly positive, so I’d like to extend a thank you to all our patients for helping us get there.

Exceptional mental healthcare via video

Digital mental healthcare has been part of our offering for a while, and the evidence is not only that it is just as effective, for many patients it can even improve outcomes! If you need to see a psychiatrist, psychologist or clinical therapist, the process is just as simple as before:

• Call our friendly triage team, who can advise on the best kind of help and connect you with your ideal clinician

• All your preparation can be done online, from providing essential background information to giving you full instructions on connecting via video

• Your appointment will be the same length as before, conducted face-to-face with your clinician via video

• Following your appointment we will ensure you get your clinical report in a timely manner and help you with whatever follow up has been recommended, such as further treatment or getting prescriptions

Please note that we’re not able to initiate ADHD medication for new patients at present, and we’re also not able to carry out both parts of the CAMHS ASD assessment process, but everything else is available as normal.

Staying flexible

A lot has changed since last week, and it’s set to continue, so we appreciate that people’s plans may still be disrupted. If you do need to cancel or change your appointment for any reason, we ask that you try and give us as much notice as possible. We promise we will make every effort to still get you the help that you need.

At the same time, please be aware that many of our clinicians are part of the amazing effort being made by our NHS at the moment. Obviously, that may mean making certain accommodations and we will advise if this is the case.

Staying positive

We’ve already been gladdened by the effort and understanding of everybody to make such big changes in record time. And it’s equally heartening to see so much community support and generosity in the country at large. We’re positive we will all pull through this together.

 In the meantime, stay well, and as always we’re here to help you in any way that we can.

Yours sincerely,

Barny Guthrie
CEO