Effect of COVID-19 on outpatient services in patients with aortovascular disease: a UK multicentre study

The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disrupted healthcare services worldwide. Outpatient services have necessarily been restructured to accommodate COVID-19 patients and to maintain social distancing measures. The aim of our study was to investigate how the COVID-19 pandem...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England 2023-08, Vol.105 (S2), p.S42-S45
Main Authors: Holland, L C, Harky, A, Haqzad, Y, Roman, M, Hope, E, Jahangeer, S, Oo, A, Lopez-Marco, A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ambulatory Care
Aneurysms
Connective tissue diseases
Coronary vessels
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 - epidemiology
Disease transmission
Elective surgery
Emergency medical care
Heart
Hospitals
Humans
Original Research
Outpatient care facilities
Pandemics
Pathology
Patients
Prospective Studies
Remote Consultation
SARS-CoV-2
Telemedicine - methods
United Kingdom - epidemiology
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Summary:The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disrupted healthcare services worldwide. Outpatient services have necessarily been restructured to accommodate COVID-19 patients and to maintain social distancing measures. The aim of our study was to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected outpatient healthcare provision for patients with aortovascular disease. In this prospective study, a standardised proforma was circulated to seven aortic centres in the UK. Data on outpatient encounters were collected from March to July 2020. Captured data included demographic details, disease pattern, type of encounter (face-to-face, video or telephone), clinic outcome and availability of imaging. A total of 632 patients were included in the study, including 164 (25.9%) new referrals. In this cohort, clinic settings have shifted towards remote consultations, with 424 (67.1%) patients undergoing telephone appointments. Over a third of new patients (34.8%) had a delay in diagnostic tests, which might be attributable to the indirect effects of COVID-19. A total of 102 (16.1%) patients were added to a surgical waiting list following clinic. To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest study of outpatient activity during the COVID-19 pandemic in patients with aortovascular disease. We demonstrate how the speciality has adapted to accommodate government-endorsed changes in healthcare provision, and question how COVID-19 may have affected access to diagnostics. Finally, we discuss how COVID-19 will affect patients added to surgical waiting lists.
ISSN:0035-8843
1478-7083
1478-7083
DOI:10.1308/rcsann.2022.0018