Obstetricians are being advised to reduce in-person consultations for antenatal and postnatal care as much as possible because of the unprecedented circumstances posed by the COVID-19 outbreak.

RANZCOG suggests limiting routine antenatal visits to less than 15 minutes, replacing visits with telehealth consults, where possible, and closing maternity units to visitors.

Last week, the Federal Government unveiled a list of new, temporary MBS telehealth and telephone items to shift more care online, particularly for vulnerable groups, such as pregnant women and immunocompromised patients.

The college said four of the temporary MBS item numbers that would be relevant for specialist gynaecologists and obstetricians were 91822, 91823, 91832 and 91833.