RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Recovering from COVID-19: lessons learnt from an intensive secondary care follow-up service
JF Future Healthcare Journal
JO Future Healthc J
FD Royal College of Physicians
SP fhj.2021-0197
DO 10.7861/fhj.2021-0197
A1 Kartik Kumar
A1 Prashanthi Ratnakumar
A1 Piera Ricci
A1 Mustafa Al-Zubaidy
A1 Karthikan Srikanthan
A1 Shweta Agrawal
A1 Iman Ahmedani
A1 Isobel Baxter
A1 Enrique Monem
A1 Meg Coleman
A1 Sarah L Elkin
A1 Onn Min Kon
A1 Patrick Mallia
A1 Jamilah Meghji
A1 Clare Ross
A1 Georgina K Russell
YR 2022
UL http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/early/2022/10/07/fhj.2021-0197.abstract
AB In response to the first COVID-19 surge in 2020, secondary care outpatient services were rapidly reconfigured to provide specialist review for disease sequelae. At our institution, comprising hospitals across three sites in London, we initially implemented a COVID-19 follow-up pathway that was in line with expert opinion at the time but more intensive than initial clinical guidelines suggested. We retrospectively evaluated the resource requirements for this service, which supported 526 patients from April 2020 to October 2020. At the 6-week review, 193/403 (47.9%) patients reported persistent breathlessness, 46/336 (13.7%) desaturated on exercise testing, 167/403 (41.4%) were discharged from COVID-19-related secondary care services and 190/403 (47.1%) needed 12-week follow-up. At the 12-week review, 113/309 (36.6%) patients reported persistent breathlessness, 30/266 (11.3%) desaturated on exercise testing and 150/309 (48.5%) were discharged from COVID-19-related secondary care services. Referrals were generated to multiple medical specialties, particularly respiratory subspecialties. Our analysis allowed us to justify rationalising and streamlining provisions for subsequent COVID-19 waves while reassured that opportunities for early intervention were not being missed.