Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on electronic referrals to rapid access clinics for suspected breast, lung and prostate cancers in Ireland.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic impacted cancer services worldwide. We examined the effect of the first three pandemic waves on the number of electronic (e)-referrals to rapid access clinics (RACs) for breast, lung and prostate cancer in Ireland.

Methods

This study used a retrospective, repeated cross-sectional design. The predicted weekly number of e-referrals by suspected cancer types from March 2020 to May 2021 was calculated using the Holt-Winters seasonal smoothing method, based on the observed numbers from a representative pre-pandemic period (01 January 2019 to 01 March 2020) and compared this with the observed number across the first three pandemic waves (02 March 2020 to 09 May 2021). Percentage differences were calculated between observe

SUBMITTER: Bambury N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11430919 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature