Impact of Measures Taken to Contain COVID-19 on Hospital Surgical Care Services and Clinical Outcomes

Impact of measures taken to contain COVID-19 on hospital surgical care services and clinical outcomes

Swift and decisive actions on the part of healthcare and hospital authorities are required to
 effectively contain the current COVID-19 pandemic. These measures firstly allow personnel and
 facilities leeway to provide surge capabilities to meet anticipated increased demands on the
 healthcare service. In addition, by deferring none urgent hospital visits, admissions and
 investigations, such measures support social distancing and aid attempts to control disease
 transmission. Deferring perceived non-urgent patient services may however lead to unintended
 delayed diagnoses and exacerbation of current patient conditions and lead to increased
 emergency admissions and surgeries.
 
 A policy decision was made that essential surgical services pertaining to cancer and urgent
 cardiovascular surgery were allowed but that surgeons had the option to postpone what is
 assessed to be less urgent cases. Increasingly patients also postpone their surgeries or
 visits because of anxieties over the developing situation. Elective surgical services at the
 Outram Campus were thus significantly reduced from January 2020 as part of the measures to
 contain the COVID-19 outbreak.
 
 The surgical philosophy during this period was that a judicious policy that allowed surgeons
 to proceed with surgery deemed critical but to postpone those deemed less so will at the
 system level, avoid poor outcomes for patients who required surgery and yet successfully
 re-allocate resources required to address the unfolding pandemic.