The Virtual Fracture Clinic Service at University College Hospital (UCH) offers high quality, safe and effective follow up care to patients after an orthopaedic injury. We provide a consultant-led, multidisciplinary service for patients who are referred from the UCH Emergency Department.

Service management

Other contact information

07946552285 – Monday to Friday, 9-5pm, messages checked once a day.

 

Address

UCH Virtual Fracture Clinic,
Orthopaedics Department,
Surgical Specialties Division,
UCLH NHS Foundation Trust,
Ground Floor Central,
250 Euston Road, London, NW1 2PG

Other referral information

PLEASE NOTE: Referrals into this service can only be made by UCLH Emergency Department clinicians placing an order via the internal EPIC system.

In the Virtual Fracture Clinic, your case will be assessed by a specialist consultant-led orthopaedic trauma team within 3 working days of referral.

Firstly, your referral and any imaging (xray/scan) performed when you attended the Emergency Department will be reviewed. This will be done by a senior orthopaedic surgeon and an experienced orthopaedic physiotherapist.

This service is for those who have attended UCH with a bone, joint, or muscle injury, (often called an orthopaedic injury). When patients do not need to be admitted to hospital after this type of injury, they are usually referred to be seen in a fracture clinic.

Coming back to hospital for this appointment can be difficult for some patients due to:

  • Pain
  • Reduced mobility
  • Commitments such as school, work or child care.

For others, the appointment is not necessary as they can manage their injury at home with simple advice.

Sometimes, patients come to the appointment and then need to be referred to a specialist for a further opinion. Alternatively, they may need another service such as physiotherapy or nursing.

The UCLH Virtual Fracture Clinic service has been introduced to provide safe and effective follow up care to patients who attend our Emergency Department with orthopaedic injuries.

Once you have been assessed and treated in the Emergency Department, if you would like onward care at UCH, the staff will refer you to the virtual fracture clinic so that the appropriate management plan can be made as soon as possible.

You will be asked to provide contact details including a telephone number, current address and email address (if you have one).

Please make sure you can be contacted on the number you provide.

In most cases, if a clinic appointment is needed to assess your injury further, someone from the fracture clinic booking team will call you to arrange this.  


If a follow-up with a doctor in a fracture clinic is not needed, you may be called by the clinical team for a telephone consultation instead.
 

You will not need to physically attend the hospital for the virtual fracture clinic appointment.

Patient aftercare is dependent on the nature of the injury. Some patients will be suitable to be managed in the community setting with support from their GP or local services. Some will require hospital visits and some will be discharged after a telephone consultation with the virtual fracture clinic team and provision of basic self-management advice.

Upper and lower limb fractures & soft tissue injuries that do not require admission to hospital, but may benefit from specialist orthopaedic follow up care at UCLH.