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Impact of COVID-19 on outpatient appointments in children and young people in England: an observational study.
Bottle, Alex; Neale, Francesca K; Foley, Kimberley A; Viner, Russell M; Kenny, Simon; Aylin, Paul; Saxena, Sonia; Hargreaves, Dougal S.
  • Bottle A; Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.
  • Neale FK; Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK francesca.neale1@nhs.net.
  • Foley KA; Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.
  • Viner RM; Population, Policy and Practice Research Programme, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health Population Policy and Practice, London, UK.
  • Kenny S; National Clinical Director, NHS England and NHS Improvement, London, UK.
  • Aylin P; Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
  • Saxena S; Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.
  • Hargreaves DS; Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.
BMJ Open ; 12(8): e060961, 2022 08 08.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1986366
ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES:

To describe the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on outpatient appointments for children and young people.

SETTING:

All National Health Service (public) hospitals in England.

PARTICIPANTS:

All people in England aged <25 years. OUTCOME

MEASURES:

Outpatient department attendance numbers, rates and modes (face to face vs telephone) by age group, sex and socioeconomic deprivation.

RESULTS:

Compared with the average for January 2017 to December 2019, there was a 3.8 million appointment shortfall (23.5%) for the under-25 population in England between March 2020 and February 2021, despite a total rise in phone appointments of 2.6 million during that time. This was true for each age group, sex and deprivation fifth, but there were smaller decreases in face to face and total appointments for babies under 1 year. For all ages combined, around one in six first and one in four follow-up appointments were by phone in the most recent period. The proportion of appointments attended was high, at over 95% for telephone and over 90% for face-to-face appointments for all ages.

CONCLUSIONS:

COVID-19 led to a dramatic fall in total outpatient appointments and a large rise in the proportion of those appointments conducted by telephone. The impact that this has had on patient outcomes is still unknown. The differential impact of COVID-19 on outpatient activity in different sociodemographic groups may also inform design of paediatric outpatient services in the post-COVID period.
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Full text: Available Collection: International databases Database: MEDLINE Main subject: COVID-19 Type of study: Cohort study / Experimental Studies / Observational study / Prognostic study / Randomized controlled trials Topics: Long Covid Limits: Adolescent / Child / Humans Country/Region as subject: Europa Language: English Journal: BMJ Open Year: 2022 Document Type: Article Affiliation country: Bmjopen-2022-060961

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Full text: Available Collection: International databases Database: MEDLINE Main subject: COVID-19 Type of study: Cohort study / Experimental Studies / Observational study / Prognostic study / Randomized controlled trials Topics: Long Covid Limits: Adolescent / Child / Humans Country/Region as subject: Europa Language: English Journal: BMJ Open Year: 2022 Document Type: Article Affiliation country: Bmjopen-2022-060961