Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic the Canterbury carpal tunnel clinic operated a relatively open access service for general practitioners with minimal referral criteria. It was only necessary for a general practitioner to suspect CTS and to confirm the presence of any two out of a list of four clinical features. Operating under this policy 40% of all GP referrals to the clinic had negative test results. We had previously observed that 25% of cases referred to the clinic had clinical histories which were not suggestive of CTS. (Bland, 2014) In April 2020 therefore we changed the referral protocol to include initial triage of new GP referrals for suspected CTS using the symptom questionnaire at www.carpal-tunnel.net. Referrals were only accepted for patients with a probability of CTS > 20%. Patients who were unlikely to have CTS were directed to other services. Evaluating the effect of this change in policy against the background of the epidemic is difficult but new GP referrals for suspected CTS have decreased by 66% whereas non-CTS EMG activity has reduced by 20%, suggesting that the new referral policy has significantly restrained GP referrals for possible CTS.  The proportion of negative test results in GP referrals for suspected CTS has reduced from 40% to 31%. At least partly attributable to the change in policy there has been a 27% reduction in mean referral-to test time for all tests and there is some evidence that we have been able to prioritise patients with more severe CTS so that they are seen and treated more quickly than those with milder disease.