RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 COVID-19 pandemic: changes in cancer admissions
JF BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care
JO BMJ Support Palliat Care
FD British Medical Journal Publishing Group
SP bmjspcare-2020-002468
DO 10.1136/bmjspcare-2020-002468
A1 Guven, Deniz Can
A1 Aktas, Burak Yasin
A1 Aksun, Melek Seren
A1 Ucgul, Enes
A1 Sahin, Taha Koray
A1 Yildirim, Hasan Cagri
A1 Guner, Gurkan
A1 Kertmen, Neyran
A1 Dizdar, Omer
A1 Kilickap, Saadettin
A1 Aksoy, Sercan
A1 Yalcin, Suayib
A1 Turker, Alev
A1 Uckun, Fatih Mehmet
A1 Arik, Zafer
YR 2020
UL http://spcare.bmj.com/content/early/2020/07/14/bmjspcare-2020-002468.abstract
AB Background COVID-19 pandemic could create a collateral damage to cancer care denoting disruptions in care due to a significant burden on healthcare and resource allocations. Herein, we evaluate the early changes in the inpatient and outpatient oncology clinics to take a snapshot of this collateral damage at Hacettepe University Cancer Institute.Methods Patients applying the outpatient clinic and outpatient palliative care (OPC) clinic for the first time and patients admitted to inpatient wards in the first 30 days after the first case of COVID-19 in Turkey were evaluated. These data were compared with data from the same time frame in the previous 3 years.Results The mean number of daily new patient applications to the outpatient clinic (9.87±3.87 vs 6.43±4.03, p<0.001) and OPC clinic (3.87±1.49 vs 1.13±1.46, p<0.001) was significantly reduced compared with the previous years. While the number of inpatient admissions was similar for a month frame, the median duration of hospitalisation was significantly reduced. The frequency of hospitalisations for chemotherapy was higher than in previous years (p<0.001). By comparison, the rate of hospitalisations for palliative care (p=0.028) or elective interventional procedures (p=0.001) was significantly reduced.Conclusion In our experience, almost all domains of care were affected during the pandemic other than patients’ systemic treatments. There were significant drops in the numbers of newly diagnosed patients, patients having interventional procedures and palliative care services, and these problems should be the focus points for the risk mitigation efforts for prevention of care disruptions.