1199 Impact of COVID-19 on Outcome from One-Stop Hernia Clinics at a District General Hospital – a Single-Centre Retrospective Observational Study

Abstract

Abstract Aim The COVID-19 pandemic has created additional pressures on waiting lists for elective surgery due to cancellations and redeployment. There was a concern that clinicians may be reluctant to offer elective operations as a result. This study aims to investigate this by comparing the clinic outcomes of patients referred to our hernia clinic at a district general hospital pre- and post-pandemic. Method Data was collected retrospectively for patients reviewed at our department’s outpatient clinics between 01/04 – 01/07 2019 and 01/04 – 01/07 2022 to capture an equivalent pre- and post-pandemic era (n = 1,264). Demographic data (age, BMI, ASA, previous abdominal surgery) was collected based on the GP referral and the outcome was recorded from the clinic letter. A total of 234 (n = 101 in 2019; n = 133 in 2022) were referred to the one-stop hernia clinic and included in this study. Results The patients seen in clinic pre-pandemic had the following outcomes: 62.4% (63/101) were offered an operation, 19.8% (20/101) were discharged, 13.9% (14/101) had follow-up, and 4.0% (4/101) had imaging requested. In the post-pandemic era, the patients reviewed had the following outcomes: 68.4% (91/133) were offered an operation, 20.3% (27/133) were discharged, 4.5% (6/133) had follow-up and 6.8% (9/133) had imaging requested. The difference in operations offered between years was not statistically significant (p>0.05). Furthermore. there were no significant differences in the demographics between the two patient groups that could have affected the analysis. Conclusions This study demonstrates COVID-19 has not made a significant impact on how frequently we offer our patients elective hernia operations.