June 18, 2021

expert reaction to two studies looking at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on surgery at NHS hospitals in England and Wales

Two studies published in the British Journal of Anaesthesia look at surgical activity in England and Wales during the COVID-19 pandemic, and mortality after surgery with SARS-CoV-2 infection in England.

Prof Neil Mortensen, President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said:

“This new piece of research underscores the gravity of the growing elective backlog.  It particularly highlights that over 900,000 cancelled operations were in the semi-urgent category which means that the patients in this group face escalating risks of their health conditions deteriorating further, perhaps even to the point where surgery is unlikely to produce any beneficial outcomes for them.

“As this research says, addressing the mounting patient backlog is going to be a difficult undertaking for the NHS in the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, as we set out in our recent New Deal for Surgery report, the government has to make resources available to enable clinicians and health care workers to meet the demand for elective surgery.  We have called for the Government to commit £1bn for surgery every year for the next five years to bring surgery back up to more sustainable levels.  Importantly, capacity needs to be built into the system so that more beds and more surgical staff are available. In addition to this, we will also need to look at how existing capacity can be optimised to increase surgery activities while maintaining patient safety.  This research estimates that elective surgical patients who catch Covid in hospitals have a significant chance of dying in hospital which is why we need to have measures in place for enhanced safety for patients. To this end, we have recommended that some hospitals are designated as surgical hubs for specified types of elective procedures by bringing skills and resources together under one roof in Covid-secure environments. Surgical hubs separate elective surgical services from emergency services and such a separation will allow elective surgery to continue if we have to face another pandemic or if there are severe winter pressures.”

‘Surgical activity in England and Wales during the COVID-19 pandemic: a nationwide observational cohort study’ by Dobbs et al and ‘Mortality after surgery with SARS-CoV-2 infection in England: a population-wide epidemiological study’ by Abbott et al were both published in the British Journal of Anaesthesia at 00:01 UK time on Friday 18^th June.

DOI: 10.1016/j.bja.2021.05.001 & 10.1016/j.bja.2021.05.018

All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink:

www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/covid-19

Declared interests

None received.