Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Sep 28:1-4.
doi: 10.1017/S0022215120002091. Online ahead of print.

Impact of coronavirus disease 2019 on urgent referrals to secondary care otolaryngology: a prospective case series

M S Osborne  1 , E Bentley  1 , A Farrow  1 , J Chan  2 , J Murphy  1
Affiliations

Impact of coronavirus disease 2019 on urgent referrals to secondary care otolaryngology: a prospective case series

M S Osborne et al. J Laryngol Otol. .

Abstract

Objective: As the novel coronavirus disease 2019 changed patient presentation, this study aimed to prospectively identify these changes in a single ENT centre.

Design: A seven-week prospective case series was conducted of urgently referred patients from primary care and accident and emergency department.

Results: There was a total of 133 referrals. Referral rates fell by 93 per cent over seven weeks, from a mean of 5.4 to 0.4 per day. Reductions were seen in referrals from both primary care (89 per cent) and the accident and emergency department (93 per cent). Presentations of otitis externa and epistaxis fell by 83 per cent, and presentations of glandular fever, tonsillitis and peritonsillar abscess fell by 67 per cent.

Conclusion: Coronavirus disease 2019 has greatly reduced the number of referrals into secondary care ENT. The cause for this reduction is likely to be due to patients' increased perceived risk of the virus presence in a medical setting. The impact of this reduction is yet to be ascertained, but will likely result in a substantial increase in emergency pressures once the lockdown is lifted and the general public's perception of the coronavirus disease 2019 risk reduces.

Keywords: Coronavirus; Emergency Care; Primary Care; Referral.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Numbers of daily referrals over the study period. Key dates are shown in bold. NXH = New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton; PM = Prime Minister
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Numbers of weekly referrals and referral source (primary care vs accident and emergency department) over the study period. A&E = accident and emergency; GP = general practitioner
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Johns Hopkins University & Medicine. Coronavirus Resource Center. In: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/ [4 May 2020]
    1. Coronaviridae Study Group of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. The species Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus: classifying 2019-nCoV and naming it SARS-CoV-2. Nat Microbiol 2020;5:536–44 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Public Health England. Emergency Department Syndromic Surveillance System: England. Year 2020, week 13. 2 April 2002. In: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploa... [4 May 2020]
    1. Public Health England. Emergency Department Syndromic Surveillance System: England. Year 2020, week 12. 26 March. In: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploa... [4 May 2020]
    1. Griffiths E. Incidence of ENT problems in general practice. J R Soc Med 1979;72:740–2 - PMC - PubMed