A Survey of Chronic Pain Telephone Consultations During COVID-19 at an Inner-City Secondary Care Centre.

The COVID-19 pandemic has mandated telehealth adaptations. Communication in the pain consultation is a complex interplay of non-verbal visual cues and behaviours. The crucial "therapeutic alliance" can be difficult to establish with telehealth. Whilst telehealth offers a viable alternative, there are concerns over accessibility, clinical limitations and benefit. Our secondary care service for chronic pain, established a remote telehealth follow-up clinic in response to the first wave. We set out to retrospectively evaluate the service according to the Faculty of Pain Medicine Standards of Good Consultation. Themes were quality of communication, feeling listened to, self-help advice and understanding.