Use of the National Consultant Information Programme to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes and admission route of colectomies for ulcerative colitis for NHS procedures in England

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The National Consultant Information Programme (NCIP) aims to support National Health Service (NHS) consultants in England with learning and continuous self-development via an online portal which compares their individual and patient outcomes against local and national benchmarks. The aim of this study is to confirm the idea that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed surgical practice for Ulcerative Colitis (UC) patients. Method(s) Hospital Episode Statistics data was extracted from NCIP using the International Classification of Diseases-10 code K51 (ulcerative colitis) and cross referencing them with procedures performed for UC. The financial year (April-March) was chosen as it corresponded to the start of the pandemic. Result(s) The table highlights a stepwise decrease in colectomies for UC during the pandemic. Proportionally the number of emergency colectomies was higher during the pandemic in 2020-21 when compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2018-2020 (p = 0.01). A simultaneous decrease was illustrated in the proportion of elective colectomies. Conclusion(s) This large national healthcare data set has provided evidence that the pandemic has had a profound impact on surgery for UC. The proportion of cases performed electively decreased, with a corresponding rise in emergency procedures. An overall decrease in operations for UC as a whole was seen;raising the concern that patients may be waiting excessively long for their surgery.