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Citation
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D'Asta F, Choong J, Thomas C, Adamson J, Wilson Y, Wilson D, Moiemen N, Farroha A. Burns 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub. |
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Abstract
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The COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant changes to society. It has changed the way people behave and how healthcare is provided. In our study, we seek to evaluate the impact of the pandemic on the epidemiology of burns in the paediatric population.
Government-implemented lockdown measures and school closures have led to reduced outdoor activities and lifestyle changes. Our regional Paediatric Burns Centre introduced a new standard operating protocol involving a new phone consultation pathway, a secure email platform for effective communication with parents and tertiary referring hospitals. The aim is to reduce physical attendance to hospital where possible, streamline our referral service, avoid unnecessary admissions and empower parents where appropriate.
We performed a retrospective comparison over five weeks in which the government imposed lockdown instructions from 23/3/2020 to 30/04/2020 (lockdown period) and compared it to a similar period from a year ago 23/03/2019 to 30/04/2019 (control period).
During this period, the total attendance to our Emergency Department (ED) has decreased by 60% in the lockdown period (7127 versus 2936), as expected due to the national advice to avoid unnecessary visits to hospital. The incidence of burn injuries reported was instead greater in proportion -- 2.8% of all ED attendances, compared to 1.5% in the previous year, despite the overall decrease in total number of burn injuries (n = 83) by 24%. This could be due to a combination of the closure of some local and minor injury facilities, reduced face-to-face consultations with general practitioners and the advice given to the general public that even minor burn injuries still require medical attention for adequate treatment. This instruction is crucial for the well-known potentially life-threatening complications of burns in children [1]. Concerns were raised by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health that children may be coming to harm from delayed presentation to emergency departments for fears of contracting COVID-19 in hospital. In our cohort of burns patients, only 2 were deemed to have come to harm by delaying presentation...
Language: en |