Are patients' fears of catching COVID-19 during an emergency hospital admission with an acute urological problem justified?-A UK epicentre experience.

BACKGROUND: To establish the risk of catching COVID-19 as urology emergency inpatient and assess patients' fears and attitudes towards seeking help. METHODS: A single-centre retrospective study of urological emergency admissions was conducted over a 10-week period in 2019 and compared to same period of 2020 pandemic. Also, a telephone survey was performed based on a COVID-19 fear questionnaire. RESULTS: In-hospital, infection rate was 0.82% during or within 28 days of discharge with no related mortality. The majority of patients were afraid to visit A&E during the pandemic with less being afraid to visit their GPs; 64% were reluctant to seek medical input by trying self-treatment; 56% admitted intentional delay to visit the hospital. Additionally, 56% considered risk of getting COVID-19 was higher rather than leaving their condition untreated. Interestingly, the vast majority (82%) stated that they would not change approach regarding hospital visits if the same situation occurred. CONCLUSIONS: The risk of contracting COVID 19 while a urology in patient in a COVID-19 epicentre was very low with no COVID-19-related mortality. Our data support that patients should be encouraged to attend rather than stay at home during future surges in the pandemic to prevent further non-COVID-19-related harm.

Virtual consent for virtual patients: benefits of implementation in a peri- and post-COVID-19 era.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruptions to the healthcare system, including increased reliance on virtual services, particularly clinic appointments. This leads to difficulty in obtaining informed consent; the vast majority of patients now need to be consented on the day of the procedure. To reduce problems with this process, the practice of obtaining electronic consent may be the correct way forward.