One year on: assessing the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 on demand for semi-urgent ENT services.

Abstract

This study investigated how the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has impacted on presentations to ENT first-on-call services. All appointments to a rapid access triage clinic from 1 June to 31 August in 2019 and 2020 were reviewed retrospectively and their reasons for consultation classified. A binomial proportion test was used to determine whether the proportions of consultations per presentation differed significantly between years. This analysis was repeated with the number of unique patients per presenting complaint. The proportions of nine reasons for consultation differed significantly between 2019 and 2020, including an increase in otitis media and nasal trauma presentations, and a decrease in otitis externa and tonsillitis presentations. Reattendances caused some variation in the frequency of certain diagnoses. Our data suggest a shift in the presentations to first-on-call services, which may be a result of changes in patient behaviour and access to healthcare services.