ABSTRACT
Background and Aim: The covid-19 pandemic created huge chal-lenges for healthcare worldwide, in the UK reiterating the popu-lations need for an efficient national health system. With a device implantation rate of 1700/million population (UK), regular mon-itoring is a significant undertaking. We focus on a single tertiary cardiac centre for children, serving an 8 million population, and their ability to deliver such a service at one of the most challenging times in the history of the NHS. Method(s): We retrospectively gathered data for the period April 2020-April 2021 for all children under our service with;perma-nent pacing system (PPM), implantable defibrillator (ICD), loop recorder (LINQ). Data was gathered from our secure cardiac data-base including demographics, device particulars, settings and lon-gevity. First hand accounts from families were gathered by one clinician using a standardized structured set of questions. The responses were tabulated to reveal common themes and key words. Result(s): Pre-pandemic 122 patients had devices, with 42 (34%) having monitoring capability at home. As of April 2021 136 patients had devices in situ, with 87 (64%) on home monitoring. See table for data. Conclusion(s): Early in the pandemic parents of children with cardiac conditions were justifiably anxious, unclear as to whether their child was at an increased risk given their chronic condition. More complex children were asked to shield initially which meant their medical appointments became impractical. At a time when new ways of working became a necessity as opposed to a novelty our centre utilised the technology available to keep children and their families out of hospital. Home monitoring providing autonomy for our patients and families, and a link to those caring for them at a time of ongoing uncertainty. However there were limitations, 6% of our PPM systems don't have a compatible home monitoring system and those with poor network signal in the home aren't eligible. Furthermore demand for home monitoring has rocketed, which device companies have struggled to meet meaning we must prioritise our most complex and high risk patients.