Considering community care in public health responses: A national study regarding palliative care during a prolonged coronavirus disease 2019 lockdown.

OBJECTIVE: To describe changes in palliative care characteristics, utilisation and outcomes in Victoria during a period of enhanced public health management and a prolonged lockdown due to coronavirus disease 2019. METHODS: A national retrospective cohort study with palliative care service setting comparisons in Victoria and other mainland states was conducted. RESULTS: Analysis of 48 non-Victorian services (n=53,428 patients) and 20 Victorian services (n=31,125 patients) showed that for community services, patient volume, average length of stay, functional dependency and the proportion of admissions in a deteriorating phase increased during the lockdown in Victoria, yet little changed in comparator states. Regarding inpatient services, the management of family/carer problems remained constant in comparator states, yet substantial fluctuations in outcomes in Victoria were observed. CONCLUSIONS: As health systems adapt to changing circumstances during the pandemic, the ability to upscale community services is critical. Addressing the implications of shifting inpatient care to the community needs attention. IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH: Our study highlights the need to ensure community care providers are adequately considered within public health management responses. 'Joined up' policy and implementation across care settings are essential, especially as major barriers to infection control and increased utilisation may be evident in the community during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

Computational design and experimental analysis of a novel visor for COVID-19 patients receiving high-flow nasal oxygen therapy

The Covid-19 global pandemic has reshaped the requirements of healthcare sectors worldwide. Following the exposure risks associated with Covid-19, this paper aims to design, optimise, and validate a wearable medical device that reduces the risk of transmission of contagious droplets from infected patients in a hospital setting. This study specifically focuses on those receiving high-flow nasal oxygen therapy. The design process consisted of optimising the geometry of the visor to ensure that the maximum possible percentage of harmful droplets exhaled by the patient can be successfully captured by a vacuum tube attached to the visor. This has been completed by deriving a number of concept designs and assessing their effectiveness, based on numerical analysis, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and experimental testing. The CFD results are validated using various experimental methods such as Schlieren imaging, particle measurement testing and laser sheet visualisation. Droplet capturing efficiency of the visor was measured through CFD and validated through experimental particle measurement testing. The results presented a 5% deviation between CFD and experimental results. Also, the modifications based on the validated CFD results improved the visor effectiveness by 47% and 38% for breathing and coughing events, respectively © 2022 The Author(s)

Public Value Management: A Paradigm Shift?

This chapter reflects on the previous chapters and provides an assessment of what the evidence from the British context tells us about the debate regarding whether we are living in a time of post-new public management, whether public value management fills a conceptual vacuum, or whether this represents the ‘emperors new clothes’. It concludes that there has not been a paradigmatic shift away from new public management ideas but that there has been an incremental shift in terms of how public value outcomes are being considered by policy-makers. What has been missing is a comprehensive reform agenda that allows public value management to be a consistent and integral part of British governance. However, the twin crises of Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic may offer a springboard for reform in the medium to long term. © 2021, The Author(s).

The Leadership of Co-Production in Health and Social Care Integration in Scotland: A Qualitative Study

The involvement of citizens in the production and creation of public services has become a central tenet for administrations internationally. In Scotland, co-production has underpinned the integration of health and social care via the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014. We report on a qualitative study that examined the experiences and perspectives of local and national leaders in Scotland on undertaking and sustaining co-production in public services. By adopting a meso and macro perspective, we interviewed senior planning officers from eight health and social care partnership areas in Scotland and key actors in national agencies. The findings suggest that an overly complex Scottish governance landscape undermines the sustainability of co-production efforts. As part of a COVID-19 recovery, both the implementation of meaningful co-production and coordinated leadership for health and social care in Scotland need to be addressed, as should the development of evaluation capacities of those working across health and social care boundaries so that co-production can be evaluated and report to inform the future of the integration agenda.

Missed high-risk adenomas and colorectal cancers due to COVID-19 pandemic at an urban U.S. tertiary care center in 2020

Introduction: During the COVID-19 pandemic, outpatient colonoscopies throughout the US were postponed, creating a significant backlog of procedures. We estimated the number of missed high- risk adenomas and colorectal cancers in 2020 at an urban, tertiary-care, safety-net teaching hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. Methods: This observational study evaluated the number of high-risk adenomas (defined as ≥3 adenomas, adenoma ≥10 mm in size, adenoma with tubulovillous or villous histological features, or adenoma with high-grade dysplasia) and colorectal cancers diagnosed by outpatient colonoscopy from January 2020 to November 2020, and compared it with those diagnosed from January 2017 to December 2019. Patients with a personal history of colorectal cancer or a colonoscopy indication of inflammatory bowel disease, therapeutic procedure (other than removal of large polyp), or diarrhea were excluded (10% of all colonoscopies). A Poisson regression model using colonoscopy data from 2017 to 2019-adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity and indication-was used to predict expected highrisk adenomas and colorectal cancers per month in 2020. Predicted values were compared to actual values to estimate missed diagnoses. Results: A total of 6597, 7136, and 6816 colonoscopies were performed in 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively. There were 40% fewer colonoscopies performed in January to November 2020 (n = 3704) compared to the same period in 2019. In January to November 2020, 505 high-risk adenomas (Figure 1a) and 21 colorectal cancers (Figure 1b) were diagnosed. We estimate that 284 (36%) highrisk adenomas and 9 (30%) colorectal cancers were missed during this period. The rate of colorectal cancer detection was 6 per 1000 cases performed in 2017 to 2019. Assuming similar patient characteristics and indications, 1349 additional colonoscopies will be needed to diagnose 9 missed colorectal cancers. Conclusion: This study provides one of the first real world estimates of missed high-risk adenomas and colorectal cancers due to the cancellation of outpatient colonoscopies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results have implications on planning strategies to schedule elective colonoscopies to increase the yield of detection of these high-risk lesions.

What drives support for social distancing? Pandemic politics, securitization, and crisis management in Britain

Support for social distancing measures was, globally, high at the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic but increasingly came under pressure. Focusing on the UK, this article provides a rigorous exploration of the drivers of public support for social distancing at their formative stage, via mixed methods. Synthesizing insights from crisis management and securitization theory, thematic analysis is employed to map the main frames promoted by the government and other actors on the nature/severity, blame/responsibility, and appropriate response to the pandemic, which 'follows the science'. The impact of these on public attitudes is examined via a series of regression analyses, drawing on a representative survey of the UK population (n = 2100). Findings challenge the prevailing understanding that support for measures is driven by personal health considerations, socio-economic circumstances, and political influences. Instead, crisis framing dynamics, which the government is well-positioned to dominate, have the greatest impact on driving public attitudes. © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of European Consortium for Political Research.

An image-based eyelid lesion management service-evaluation of a pilot.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Oculoplastics is a predominantly visual specialty and many of the pathologies can be diagnosed based on external appearance. An image-based eyelid lesion management service was piloted to reduce the number of patients who would require outpatient clinic review. The aim of this study was to determine its accuracy and feasibility, both as a hospital-based and community optometrist-based service. If successful, the service was envisaged to significantly reduce the number of patients that require face-to-face (F2F) review, in accordance with current post-COVID-19 principles of social distancing. METHODS: Patients with lid lesions attending an oculoplastics clinic were assessed by consultant oculoplastic surgeons in an F2F consultation (Arm A). The lesions were photographed by a professional clinical photographer (Arm B) and by an optometrist with a handheld digital camera (Arm C). These images were reviewed by independent consultants masked to the outcome of the F2F clinical encounter. Data were collected prospectively including patient demographics, diagnosis, suspicion of malignancy and management. The image-based clinic results were compared to the F2F clinic results. RESULTS: Ninety-five patients were included. Clinical diagnoses were compared for intra-observer variability and substantial agreement was demonstrated between gold-standard F2F clinic visit (Arm A) and Arm B (Ƙ = 0.708) and C (Ƙ = 0.776). There was no statistically significant difference in the rate of discharge and all cases of malignancy were either identified or flagged for F2F review in the image-based arms. CONCLUSION: This pilot demonstrated substantial diagnostic agreement of image-based diagnoses with F2F consultation and image review alone did not miss any cases of malignancy.