The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Cardiology Services

Objective

COVID-19 pandemic resulted in prioritisation of NHS resources to cope with the surge in infected patients. However, there have been no studies in the UK looking at the effect of COVID-19 work pattern on the provision of cardiology services. We aim to assess the impact of the pandemic on the cardiology services and clinical activity.

Methods

We analysed key performance indicators in cardiology services in a single centre in the UK in the intervals prior and during the lockdown to assess for reduction or changes to service provisions.

Results

There has been more than 50% drop in patients presenting to cardiology and those diagnosed with myocardial infarction. All cardiology service provisions sustained significant reductions which included outpatient clinics, investigations, procedures and cardiology community services such as heart failure and cardiac rehabilitation.

Conclusion

As ischaemic heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death nationally and globally, cardiology services need to prepare for a significant increase in workload in the recovery phase and develop new pathways to urgently help those adversely affected by the changes in service provisions.

Key Questions

• What is already known about this subject?

  COVID-19 affected the way healthcare is delivered through restructuring and prioritisation of resources. It is therefore expected that COVID-19 work pattern will have an impact on the delivery of medical and surgical services. Quantifying this effect is necessary to plan on how to deal with COVID-19 sequelae in the recovery phase.

• What does this study add?

  As ischaemic heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death in the world, assessing the direct and indirect effect of COVID-19 on cardiology through COVID-19 related cardiac diseases and through the restriction of cardiology provisions is necessary to plan our services in the post COVID-19 era.

• How might this impact on clinical practice?

  The impact of COVID-19 will be felt beyond the direct effect of COVID-19 related cardiac diseases. The provisions of cardiac services were severely restricted due to a shift in the focus in dealing with the surge of patients with COVID-19 and patients’ reluctance to seek medical help during the lockdown period. There was therefore a reduction across all cardiology performance indicators from referrals to investigations, diagnoses and management of cardiology patients. It is therefore expected that there will be another surge of patients seeking cardiology care and that services need to plan to treat these patients early and urgently to prevent any long term complications.