Abstract
COVID-19 has taken the world by storm: since the first few cases appeared in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and by June 2020 there were more than 10 million cases of COVID-19 cases worldwide. Malaysia had its first case in January 2020 and acted promptly by implementing several drastic measures to contain the disease. Subsequently, the Ministry of Health Malaysia has implemented guidelines and recommendations on the management of COVID-19. The Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (ORL-HNS) provides services for patients with ear, nose, throat, head and neck diseases and provides audiology, speech and language therapy, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate training. As the department’s staff is heavily involved in examinations and interventions of upper aerodigestive tract problems, the challenges are distinctly different from other specialties. This article discusses how COVID-19 affected ORL-HNS services and what measures were taken in Hospital Melaka, Malaysia.
Highlights
After first reporting cases of pneumonia of unknown aetiology in Wuhan Hubei Province in December 2019 linked to a seafood and animal wet market, Chinese authorities were able to isolate the novel coronavirus on 7 January 2020 [1]
Malays J Med Sci. 2021;28(3):143–150 the disease, and the number of COVID-19 cases rose regionally and, by the sixth week of its appearance, COVID-19 had been detected in 20 other countries apart from China [3]
We have to be prepared to face the upcoming challenges as the practices and recommendations will continue to evolve as new evidence emerges. This unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic requires urgent public health measures and effective communication at all levels in respective departments to reduce the burden caused by COVID-19 in the form of health, social, emotional and economic disruptions
Summary
After first reporting cases of pneumonia of unknown aetiology in Wuhan Hubei Province in December 2019 linked to a seafood and animal wet market, Chinese authorities were able to isolate the novel coronavirus on 7 January 2020 [1]. For patients with head and neck malignancy, multilevel risk assessment, multidisciplinary discussion and shared decision-making with the patients were made to constitute appropriate treatment All these drastic measures were taken in order to provide essential services while at the same time limiting health care workers to potential COVID-19 exposure (Table 1). In accordance with recommendations for COVID-19 management by the Ministry of Health Malaysia, a core ORL-HNS COVID-19 team was formed comprising one specialist, two medical officers and two staff nurses, and they received formal training in wearing PPE, sample-taking and packaging from infectious disease control officers [21]. Khor et al [32] broke down the numbers and highlighted the backlogs in urology experience during COVID-19, while a similar breakdown of the backlog has been adopted to determine the numbers for ORL-HNS so that we can prepare for the work required over the six months to catch up on 84 more outpatient consultations per week, 54 h per month for operations. We have to be prepared to face the upcoming challenges as the practices and recommendations will continue to evolve as new evidence emerges
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