Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on diagnostic pathology in the Netherlands.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has a huge impact on healthcare provided. The nationwide pathology registry of the Netherlands, PALGA, offers an outstanding opportunity to measure this impact for diseases in which pathology examinations are involved.

Methods

Pathology specimen numbers in 2020 were compared with specimen numbers in 2019 for 5 periods of 4 weeks, representing two lockdowns and the periods in between, taking into account localization, procedure and benign versus malignant diagnosis.

Results

The largest decrease was seen during the first lockdown (spring 2020), when numbers of pathology reports declined up to 88% and almost all specimen types were affected. Afterwards each specimen type showed its own dynamics with a decrease during the second lockdown f

SUBMITTER: van Velthuysen MLF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8826665 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature