**1. Introduction**

The COVID-19 epidemic has adversely affected health systems globally. The utilisation of technology and other innovative channels to link up with patients has evolved drastically over the past 12 months. COVID-19 regulations and the fear of contracting the virus at a health care facility has also changed health seeing behaviour among patients. There has been a plateau in teleconsultations since the end of the lockdown in France (on May 11, 2020), but the amount remains higher than before, stabilising at 150,000 per week [1]. Temporary disruptions in routine and non-emergency medical care access and delivery have been observed in the US and worldwide during COVID-19 [2]. The authors estimated that 40.9% of adults had avoided the use of medical care services during the pandemic. The study further depicts that 12.0% of adults also avoided urgently or emergency care, and just under a third of adults (31.5%) avoided routine care. A study comparing health facility visits from March to May 2020 with in-person visits during the same period in 2019, the results showed a reduction of 52% and 47% of emergency department visits and hospital admissions was observed compared to in-person visits (*p* < 0.01) [3]. The study also found that, of 120 patients surveyed, 95% were satisfied/very satisfied with the telephone visits.

### **1.1 Virtual consultations during emergencies**

According to authors such as Martos-Pérez *et al.* and Downes *et al.*, telephone consultations could ease up the overburdened healthcare system [3–5]. A study by Bokolo found that telemedicine and virtual software as one of the contributing factors to the decrease in the number of visits to emergency rooms [6]. Accordingly, outpatient in-person visits can be converted to telephone visits [3].

#### **1.2 Arguments against virtual consultations**

Furthermore, there were challenges and obstacles cited in the use of virtual consultations. McGrail, Ahuja and Leaver, [7] conducted a systematic review on the view against the use of the telephone for virtual consultations [7]. The author concluded that patient consultations platforms such as telephones might allow minor problems to be dealt with without a face-to-face visit, In particular for acute illness. The author further depicts that even though these platforms may be cost savings, they may miss rare but serious conditions [7]. Another study by Car *et al.* showed that remote consultations were perceived as being less "information-rich" than face-to-face consultations, and technical issues were common [8]. Furthermore, there was no credible evidence to guide clinicians on when to use phone or video consultations.
