THE Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is urging outpatients not to call its switchboard during the coronavirus outbreak, to avoid it becoming overwhelmed.

Instead, outpatient appointments will be switched to telephone or video consultation or they will be postponed.

The move comes after the hospital reported receiving a "large number" of phone calls from concered patients.

Patients will be informed by letter or telephone and clinical teams are reviewing their patient lists to identify those who still need to be seen.

Dr Jonathan Marks, consultant rheumatologist at the Royal Bournemouth, said: “We apologise for the inconvenience this may cause patients, but we would like to stress the safety of our patients must remain a top priority and it is important to ensure we fully complied with the actions taken by government to reduce the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

“The move to switch patients to video or telephone consultations is a sensible way forward, not just in these unsettling times, but in the future to help reduce unnecessary trips and our collective carbon footprint.

“Most importantly, the action we take now will put us in the best possible position for when we start to receive more patients with Covid-19 and we are confident it will enable us to protect the people we serve and the healthcare workers we depend on to look after the sickest in our society.”

During this time, patients are being asked not to call the hospital so the switchboard is not overwhelmed.

Patients should continue to attend appointments unless they are notified otherwise, and those who wish to cancel their appointment must call the hospital.

The trust has made the appeal after receiving a large number of calls from patients concerned about their appointments.

Patients who are worried should call the number on their appointment letter.