The All Wales COVID-19 guideline for managing patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 in the community has been developed to support primary, community, and pre-hospital services. The guideline should help clinicians determine which patients should be managed at home with specific safety-netting advice, and which patients should be admitted to hospital. The guideline describes the patient’s journey from initial symptoms, assessment, risk stratification, and management in the community with safety netting in virtual wards where available, or admission to hospital. At each stage there is supplemental video tutorials and resources to support clinical decision making.
In this featured TV show we are joined by Dr Alastair Roeves, the National Clinical lead for Primary Care in Wales. We discuss the purpose and principles of the guideline and an analysis of the three key aims of the guideline including:
- To allocate the right resources to the right people at the right time
- Selected patients are monitored with safely netting to detect deterioration early
- All patients have a COVID infection status prior to hospital admission to reduce hospital transmission
