Impact of COVID 19 on red flag discussions for haematological malignancies within the Belfast trust.
COVID-19
Haematology
Malignancy
Red flag
Journal
The Ulster medical journal
ISSN: 2046-4207
Titre abrégé: Ulster Med J
Pays: Northern Ireland
ID NLM: 0417367
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
May 2021
May 2021
Historique:
accepted:
29
03
2021
entrez:
19
7
2021
pubmed:
20
7
2021
medline:
23
7
2021
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
During the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been suggestions that there will be a reduction in cancer diagnoses, causing a detrimental effect on patients1. We therefore conducted an analysis to assess if there has been a reduction in new haematological malignancy diagnoses within the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust (BHSCT). We observed a significant decline in diagnostic tests used in the diagnosis of haematological malignancies. We therefore decided to analyse the impact of COVID-19 on the volume of tests performed to see if this impacted the number of new cases of haematological malignancies diagnosed. To ascertain the number of new diagnoses referred to Clinical Haematology we decided to analyse the number of new diagnoses discussed at the local Multidisciplinary Team Meetings (MDM) between March and June 2020 and compare this with the same period in 2019. In line with NICE guidelines2 there has been no change to the referral pathway for patients with new haematological malignancy. Results show that there is no significant difference between the number of new malignant haematological diagnoses discussed during March to June 2020 and the same period in 2019. This confirms that the number of new diagnoses remains the same within the two time periods. This analysis highlights that despite a reduction in primary and secondary care diagnostic blood tests, there is no difference in the number of new cases of haematological malignancies discussed at Haematology MDM throughout the first surge of the COVID-19 pandemic locally.
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
77-80Informations de copyright
Copyright © 2021 Ulster Medical Society.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
Conflict of Interest: No conflicts of interest to declare.
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