The impact of remote urology outpatient clinics during the covid-19 pandemic

Introduction: The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic of 2020 had a major impact on NHS services. From the 23rd of March 2020, the Urology Department in Basingstoke initiated telephone-led consultation clinics instead of face-to-face outpatient appointments, in accordance with U.K. guidance. Objectives: To evaluate patient experience and satisfaction following the introduction of remote (telephone) consultations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients and methods: The first 200 remote patient appointments between the 30th of March 2020 and the 16th of April 2020 were sent a postal questionnaire (19 questions relating to their experience and level of satisfaction with the interaction). Telephone consultations were conducted by 6 consultants, 3 registrars, and 2 specialist nurses. The patients were not prewarned to expect a questionnaire after the remote ap-pointment. The associated cost saving resulting from a switch from face-to-face appointments to remote telephone appointments was also calculated. Results: 100 out of the 200 patients responded within 1 month (response rate 50%). A total of 44% of the patients were new referrals, while 56% were follow-ups. Overall, the feedback was positive regarding the telephone consultation, with 88% rating the care received as excellent or very good. In addition, 90% would recommend a telephone consultation to family and friends. However, 35% would prefer in the future to have another telephone consultation rather than face-to-face consultation, with 46% preferring a face-to-face appointment in the future and 19% unsure. For new patients, the proportion wishing to have a face-to-face appointment, in the end, was unsurprisingly higher than it was for those undergoing a follow-up (39% vs. 7 %). In these 2 weeks, the cost reduction to the NHS from shifting from face-to-face consultation to telephone consultation was estimated to be £6500. Conclusions: Telephone urology clinics are a satisfactory alternative to face-to-face appointments for many of our patients now and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. They are efficient, cost-effective, and feasible to undertake urological consultation and can be implemented successfully in selected patients. The feedback from this questionnaire would suggest that priority should be given to face-to-face appointments for new patients and for complex follow-up appointments. Telephone follow-up appointments, however, are a good approach for the majority of patients.

Smart water dispenser and level indicator during pandemic situations

Even if the watercan is empty beforehand, the watercan provider supplies water at a specific time. The consumers may send warnings to the watercan supplier when the water level is low and empty to ensure the continuous availability of water. Due to global COVID-19 pandemic, the world is implementing social distancing, which is crucial to avoid the transmission of coronavirus. As a result, this research study has developed a social distance monitoring system by employing an ultrasonic sensor. A buzzer will notify the individuals if they are not isolated. People are aware of COVID-19 and are taking precautions. As a result, this research work has incorporated an automated solenoid valve open/close control system based on an infrared sensor. As a result, this will supplement the watercan supplier with watercan delivery at the appropriate moment and satisfy the needs of the people at the time. Furthermore, it reminds individuals to take precautions against COVID-19. According to the WHO, additional pandemic waves are on the way, and we should not only vaccinate but also adopt social distance to combat this pandemic spread. © 2021 IEEE.

Development of Non-Woven Filter for 3 Layer Mask from Bamboo/polypropylene Fibers

The necessary element of non-public protecting instrumentation is mask. Mask is most necessary in pandemic as a result it safeguard our life by stopping the spreading of the Corona virus by entrapping the droplets from the corona affected person to enter wearer’s nose. There are different typed of mask like non- woven mask, reusable mask, N95 mask and artifact mask etc. Majority of business masks are non-woven masks that are created from polypropylene fiber. The most downside of non-woven masks is its discomfort and affect lack of breathability. This drawback is solved by utilizing natural fibers collectively of the material in non-woven and victimization them in mask. Bamboo fiber may be a natural celluloid fiber having smart comfort properties with antimicrobial properties. Bamboo fiber is also hydroscopic, natural deodorizer and hypoallergenic which provides good breathability and comfort. The polypropylene fiber is used with bamboo to provide good strength and abrasion property. Hence an attempt is made to develop a surgical mask from bamboo fiber with different blend ratios of 70:30, 60:40 and 50:50 of Bamboo and Polypropylene fiber to judge its mechanical properties like GSM and thickness potential as a protecting barrier material in non-woven face masks. The developed non-woven fabric of different blend is compared with each other, and the results shows 50: 50 blend has good mechanical properties, and the results show an effective value of Bacterial Filtration efficiency and Differential Pressure which are the most important parameters to predict the filtration efficiency of a surgical mask.

Investigating the rationale for extending ct kub to include the chest for suspected renal colic patients during the covid-19 pandemic

Background and Objective Following on from the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) recommendation of 5th of April 2020 to perform computed tomography (CT) scan of the chest in patients presenting with an abdominal pain emergencies and undergoing an abdominal CT;comparison was made between a cohort of patients with a RCS-COVID recommended scan and a similar group of patients in the pre-COVID era. To evaluate the value of extending CT-KUB scan to include the chest area, in patients presenting to the emergency department with acute renal colic during the COVID-19 pandemic. Material and Methods Retrospective data included;initial presentation, COVID-19-related symptoms, dose length product (DLP), scan extension, Ground glass appearance (GGO), Wuhan corona virus swab polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. Results A total of 100 patients underwent CT KUB in April 2020 (Group 1) with a similar number of patients from the pre-COVID-19 pandemic randomly selected from August to October 2019 (Group 2). Patients age ranged from 15 to 91 years with a median of 48 years in Group 1, whilst in Group 2 the range was 19 to 85 years with a median of 50 years. All patients in both groups initially presented with renal colic. No COVID-19-related respiratory manifestations were recorded. Nine patients from Group 1 had GGO identified in their chest CT with all of them returning with negative COVID-19 swabs. Interestingly there was almost the same number of stones diagnosed 49% (49/ 100) in Group 1 patients compared with 50% (23/5150/100) from Group 2. Conclusions Despite the RCS COVID CT scan recommendations, our study has demonstrated no significant additional value of extending the CT-KUB to include the chest area in renal colic patients with no respiratory manifestations. Further studies are recommended in order to validate these results.