Abstract
Background: The outbreak of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been challenging globally following the scarcity of medical resources after a surge in demand. As the pandemic continues, the question remains on how to accomplish more with the existing resources and improve the efficiency of existing health care delivery systems worldwide. In this study, we reviewed the experience from Wuhan - the first city to experience a COVID-19 outbreak – that has presently shown evidence for efficient and effective local control of the epidemic.Material and Methods: We performed a retrospective qualitative study based on the document analysis of COVID-19-related materials and interviews with first-line people in Wuhan.Results: We extracted two themes (the evolution of Wuhan's prevention and control strategies on COVID-19 and corresponding effectiveness) and four sub-themes (routine prevention and control period, exploration period of targeted prevention and control strategies, mature period of prevention and control strategies, and recovery period). How Wuhan combatted COVID-19 through multi-tiered and multi-sectoral collaboration, overcoming its fragmented, hospital-centered, and treatment-dominated healthcare system, was illustrated and summarized.Conclusion: Four lessons for COVID-19 prevention and control were summarized: (a) Engage the communities and primary care not only in supporting but also in screening and controlling, and retain community and primary care as among the first line of COVID-19 defense; (b) Extend and stratify the existing health care delivery system; (c) Integrate person-centered integrated care into the whole coordination; and (d) Delink the revenue relationship between doctors and patients and safeguard the free-will of physicians when treating patients.
Highlights
The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11th, 2020 [1]
Regarding the community and isolation points, we interviewed the staff from affiliated community centers and isolation points; information about the deployment of the command center of prevention and control is mainly based on interviews with staff who were second to the command center, including resource allocation, department coordination, and information release at various stages
The health needs and panic incurred by COVID-19 overloaded the hospitals in Wuhan, and resulted in the serious outcome of limited accessibility and overcrowding
Summary
The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11th, 2020 [1]. Different responses were tested in the fight against COVID-19, such as the Fangcang hospital in Wuhan [2], the hospital ship in the United States [3], the COVID-19 track and trace app in Singapore, Australia, the UK, and Africa [4,5,6], and the rapid testing kit and hands-free hand sanitisers in Africa [6]. These responses have solved problems to some extent, but remain highly inadequate from the health care delivery system perspective. We reviewed the experience from Wuhan - the first city to experience a COVID-19 outbreak – that has presently shown evidence for efficient and effective local control of the epidemic
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