ABSTRACT
Introduction: Since the national lock down was declared in March in response to the SARS COV-2 pandemic, there has been a concerted exercise to ramp up medical infrastructure and man power, with hospitals devising plans to prepare and allocate resources to organize themselves in managing the emerging cases efficiently. There was a growing concern that non COVID care and diseases could be affected. Inability to travel, limitation of financial support, lack of support services are among the many reasons that could limit non covid care. There is however a lack of information on this impact. Aims & Objectives: * To estimate the proportion of patients with benign hematological diseases whose care was affected during covid. * To estimate the proportion of patients with malignant hematological diseases whose care was affected during covid. Material(s) and Method(s): This was a cross-sectional study conducted among patients under the care of the Regional Advanced Center for Transplantation, Haemato-Lymphoid Oncology and Marrow Diseases (RACTHAM) at the Believers Church Medical College Hospital. Patients visiting the OP service were intervewed face to face. We report on our data collected in the intial phase of lockdown from April 1, 2020 through August 31, 2020. Result(s): A total of 505 patients were interviewed and 501 resposnes were recorded. The detailed characteristics are tabulated in Table 1. The majority, 375)74.8%) of patients were diagnosed with non malignat conditions. 256 (50.6%) of the resposndent were male. We noted that only 68 patients (13.5%) could not continue their care during the intial phase of the pandemic and lock down. 156 patients (30.*%) were able to continue their care elsewhere. There were 20 deaths during this period. Amongst those whose care was affected, 156 transferred care elsewehere. 27 (5.3&) patients were unalble to travel and 15 (2.9%) patients utilised telemedicine dservices to continue their care. ALl patients who required transfusion were able to access the same during this period. Conclusion(s): This study provides the first insight to the best of our knowledge on challenges to non covid care by patients with hematological diseases in our region. This study estimating the burden or proportion of patients with hematological diseases whose non covid care was affected has the potential to help in formulating national programs in times of pandemics.