Changes in urgent and emergency care activity associated with COVID-19 lockdowns in a sub-region in the East of England: Interrupted times series analyses.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Access to and use of urgent and emergency care in the United Kingdom's National Health Service reduced during COVID-19 related lockdowns but demand reportedly increased since then. We investigated the impact of COVID-19 on urgent and emergency health care services activity in an eastern England population of 1.1 million.

Methods

We used health care activity data from a municipal health department, recorded at the level of discrete events (such as visits to hospital or ambulance calls) to compare system activity between 2018-2020 (pre-COVID), 2020-2021 (lockdown) and 2021-2023 (post-lockdown), carrying out interrupted time series analyses to describe changes in activity.

Results

Daily emergency department (ED) attendances were 10% (95% confidence interval 9-

SUBMITTER: Shabuz ZR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11530045 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature