District nurses help patients by phone in foot and mouth areas.

COMMUNITY nurses in Devon are conducting their clinics over the telephone as the foot and mouth crisis continues to deny them access to their patients.

Alison Mien, a health visitor in Barnstaple and regional chair of the south west CPHVA, said that face-to-face contact with some patients living in restricted areas was no longer possible and that telephone calls had replaced practice visits.

She said nurses are phoning mothers with young children, who cannot leave their property to attend baby clinics, to answer any questions.

'However, parents are less bothered about having their babies weighed and more concerned about how they are going to find the …