Mental Health Outcomes Among British Healthcare Workers-Lessons From the First Wave of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: To ascertain the level of psychological distress, using validated psychology tools, among British National healthcare workers (HCW) during the first wave of the Covid-19 crisis. METHODS: A multi-centre, anonymized, all-comer staff survey across 3 hospitals in Lancashire, England during the Covid-19 first wave (April to June 2020), consisting of Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS-10), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), and Impact of Events Scale (IES-6). RESULTS: Among 1113 HCW, median (IQR) PHQ-9, GAD-7, PSS-10, and IES-6 score was 7 (3 to 11), 6 (3 to 11), 19 (13 to 24), and 9 (5 to 14), respectively. Potential predictors of higher levels of psychological distress included living alone, disabled dependents, history of depression/anxiety, and being female. CONCLUSIONS: The study indicates a high prevalence of psychological distress during the acute Covid-19 period among HCW, identifies groups at risk and areas of future research.

Coronovirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic and Cardiac Electrophysiology: Guidance Protocol From a UK Tertiary Cardiac Center.

Since December 2019, the coronovirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in more than 2,160,000 positive cases and more than 145,000 deaths until April 18, 2020. The pressure to the health services worldwide has been unprecedented. The redeployment of staff and resources to treat more efficiently COVID-19 cases along with the need to reduce disease transmission has affected the field of electrophysiology among many others. Amendments to clinical pathways are obligatory in this perspective to continue to provide the necessary health services to the people who need them, although at the same time, infection control and prevention are not compromised by inadvertent disease transmission or unnecessary use of resources. We aim to provide a guide of the logistic aspects of electrophysiology procedures derived from our tertiary cardiac center during the current COVID-19 pandemic.