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Abstract
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Rates of hip and knee replacements fell by 46% and 68% respectively during the covid-19 pandemic in 2020 compared with the year before, at a far greater rate than 25 other European countries, a report has shown.
The overall rate of hip and knee replacements fell by 14% and 24% respectively across all the European countries studied while some nations kept the disruption to a minimum. Germany, for example, only reduced its hip and knee replacement rates by 7% and 11% in 2020 compared with 2019, found the Health at a Glance: Europe 20221 report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and European Commission.
The report authors said, "The reduction in surgical activities in 2020 was influenced by the duration of the suspension of elective surgery and how quickly hospitals were able to resume their activities once the suspension was lifted."
Robin Paton, orthopaedic surgeon and honorary secretary of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, said there were several reasons for the reduction in elective orthopaedic surgical procedures in the UK during this period.
"The pandemic, which resulted in the closure of elective beds and the reallocation of trauma and orthopaedic staff to wards, played a major role in this reduction," he told The BMJ. "Throughout the pandemic, there was a need for 'green zones' where surgery could be safely carried out while protecting vulnerable patients, but this was incredibly challenging because of the way many UK hospitals are designed.
"In many European countries there is a greater separation of elective surgical facilities from emergency provision. This difference in addition to more hospital beds per head of population may have facilitated the continuation of more complex inpatient orthopaedic surgical procedures than in the UK."
Paton said that there are fewer doctors, nurses, and hospital beds in the UK than in most European countries, which also contributed to the significant interruption of elective surgery...
Language: en |