Impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the quality and safety of hospital care

The Dr Foster Unit are investigating the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the quality and safety of secondary healthcare use (A&E attendances, emergency and elective hospital admissions, outpatient appointments) in adults with non-COVID-19 conditions (e.g. heart attack, heart failure, stroke, hip fracture, cancer, elective surgery). Furthermore, The Unit will investigate which groups of patients, based on patient characteristics such as age, gender, ethnicity and socio-economic status, have been most affected by the pandemic. The Unit will evaluate any long-term impact of the pandemic on secondary healthcare use including the recovery phase. (Ongoing 2022) An investigation into the impact COVID-19 has had on non-COVID-19 related A&E presentations and subsequent inpatient admissions in children with chronic or acute conditions such as asthma, epilepsy, type 1 diabetes, infections, injuries and poisonings (codes to be decided) both on first-time and subsequent presentations: this work has been funded by NIHR until mid-2022. The Unit will also investigate any temporal changes by patient characteristics such as age, ethnicity and socioeconomic position to understand better whom COVID-19 has impacted the most. Lastly, the Dr Foster Unit aims to follow-up the longer-term impacts that COVID-19 has had on hospital service use, such as A&E attendance and emergency admissions, after COVID-19. (Ongoing 2022)