PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Alexander J Deighton AU - Ceri Davies AU - Christos Bourantas AU - Charles Knight AU - Simon Woldman AU - James Deighton AU - Armita Azar AU - Debashish Das TI - Investigating consultant-led virtual review as a model for implementing 7-day cardiology services in UK clinical practice AID - 10.7861/fhj.2021-0115 DP - 2021 Nov 01 TA - Future Healthcare Journal PG - e666--e670 VI - 8 IP - 3 4099 - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/8/3/e666.short 4100 - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/8/3/e666.full SO - Future Healthc J2021 Nov 01; 8 AB - Background Disparities between weekend and weekday care, termed ‘the weekend effect’, have led to a UK government pledge to provide 7-day services. Despite this, poor outcomes have led to criticism of the programme. This study consequently sought to evaluate consultant-led virtual review as a model for 7-day cardiology services.Methods Over 4 weekends, cardiology patients underwent virtual review alongside in-person teams. Outcomes included length of stay, same-day discharge and 30-day mortality rates, as well as duration of ward rounds and change in patient management. Patients were surveyed on attitudes towards virtual review.Results Statistical analysis revealed no significant difference in clinical outcomes, while virtual review was noted to significantly decrease time taken (p<0.0001). Attitudes towards virtual review were broadly favourable.Conclusion By demonstrating comparable outcomes compared with conventional review, as well as high acceptability, this study identified virtual review as an effective substitute for in-person care.