Decreasing referrals to transient ischemic attack clinics during the COVID-19 outbreak: results from a multi-centre cross-sectional survey
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Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Objective. The COVID-19 pandemic is having major implications for stroke care with a documented significant fall in hospital acute stroke admissions. We investigated whether COVID-19 has resulted in a decreased number of referrals to the Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA) clinics across the North West London region.
Setting and Design. All the TIA clinical leads of the North West London region received an invitation by email to participate in an online survey in May 2020. The survey questionnaire aimed to assess the number of patients with suspected TIA consecutively referred to each of the TIA clinics of the North West London region between 1st March to 30th April 2020, the COVID-19 period, and between 1st March to 30th April 2019.
Results. We had a response rate of 100%. During the COVID-19 period, the TIA clinics of the North West London region received 440 referrals compared to 616 referrals received between 1st March to 30th April 2019 with a fall in the number of the referrals by 28.6%. In April 2020 compared with April 2019, the number of the referrals declined by 40.1%.
Conclusions. This multicentre analysis documented a significant reduction in the number of patients referred with suspected TIA to the specialised rapid access outpatient clinics in the North West London region during the COVID-19 pandemic. Future studies are needed to confirm our findings and to better characterise the incidence of cerebrovascular disease during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Setting and Design. All the TIA clinical leads of the North West London region received an invitation by email to participate in an online survey in May 2020. The survey questionnaire aimed to assess the number of patients with suspected TIA consecutively referred to each of the TIA clinics of the North West London region between 1st March to 30th April 2020, the COVID-19 period, and between 1st March to 30th April 2019.
Results. We had a response rate of 100%. During the COVID-19 period, the TIA clinics of the North West London region received 440 referrals compared to 616 referrals received between 1st March to 30th April 2019 with a fall in the number of the referrals by 28.6%. In April 2020 compared with April 2019, the number of the referrals declined by 40.1%.
Conclusions. This multicentre analysis documented a significant reduction in the number of patients referred with suspected TIA to the specialised rapid access outpatient clinics in the North West London region during the COVID-19 pandemic. Future studies are needed to confirm our findings and to better characterise the incidence of cerebrovascular disease during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Date Issued
2020-10-23
Date Acceptance
2020-10-05
Citation
BMJ Open, 2020, 10 (10), pp.1-4
ISSN
2044-6055
Publisher
BMJ Journals
Start Page
1
End Page
4
Journal / Book Title
BMJ Open
Volume
10
Issue
10
Copyright Statement
© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/10/e041514
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Medicine, General & Internal
General & Internal Medicine
stroke medicine
preventive medicine
quality in health care
preventive medicine
quality in health care
stroke medicine
Ambulatory Care Facilities
Betacoronavirus
COVID-19
Coronavirus Infections
Cross-Sectional Studies
Hospitalization
Humans
Incidence
Ischemic Attack, Transient
London
Pandemics
Pneumonia, Viral
Preventive Health Services
Quality of Health Care
Referral and Consultation
SARS-CoV-2
Humans
Pneumonia, Viral
Coronavirus Infections
Ischemic Attack, Transient
Hospitalization
Incidence
Cross-Sectional Studies
Ambulatory Care Facilities
Preventive Health Services
Referral and Consultation
Quality of Health Care
London
Pandemics
Betacoronavirus
COVID-19
SARS-CoV-2
1103 Clinical Sciences
1117 Public Health and Health Services
1199 Other Medical and Health Sciences
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2020-10-23