Abstract
BackgroundItaly was the first European country to experience a massive outbreak of Sars-coV-2 in March 2020. Severe measures were introduced to face the pandemic, significantly impacting all healthcare services, including pediatric palliative care (PPC) networks. We investigated how the Covid-19 pandemic modified the provision of PPC services in Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy. Both the acute and long-term impacts on the families were addressed.MethodsWe administered a retrospective three-sections online questionnaire to the eligible families assisted by our regional PPC network. Inclusion criteria were: child needing specialistic PPC, adequate knowledge of the Italian language, being in charge of the PPC regional network of Friuli Venezia Giulia from February 1, 2020. The three sections examined the same issues in different periods: the pre-covid period (until February 29, 2020), the lockdown period (March 1, 2020, to April 30, 2020), and the post-lockdown period (May 2021).ResultsTwelve patients were included. During the lockdown period, 54.6% of children had to stop physiotherapy sessions, while, among those who continued, 80.0% experienced a reduction in the sessions’ frequency. In the post-lockdown period, 45.5% of children did not have physiotherapy as often as before the pandemic onset. Overall, the access to medical visits during the lockdown and after its end was significantly reduced (p = 0.01).The level of support perceived by the families descended from grade 3 (intermediate) in the pre-covid period to 2 (low) during the lockdown (p < 0.05) and returned to grade 3 in the post-lockdown period.ConclusionThe COVID-19 pandemic and the related restrictions impacted the families and caused a transitory contraction of the perceived support. The most significant change was reduced access to medical visits and physiotherapy, which lasted over a year after the start of the pandemic.
Highlights
Was the first European country to experience a massive outbreak of Sars-coV-2 in March 2020
While few studies analyzed the effect of the acute phase of the pandemic on paediatric palliative care (PPC) services [6,7,8,9], little is known about the long-term consequences and the difficulties of the post-lockdown period for children and families assisted by pediatric palliative care (PPC) networks
Our PPC regional network (Friuli Venezia Giulia, north-east area of Italy), instituted in September 2019, includes a reference center located in IRCCS Burlo Garofolo, Trieste, and all other actors involved in children’s assistance
Summary
Was the first European country to experience a massive outbreak of Sars-coV-2 in March 2020. Severe measures were introduced to face the pandemic, significantly impacting all healthcare services, including pediatric palliative care (PPC) networks. We investigated how the Covid-19 pandemic modified the provision of PPC services in Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy. Both the acute and long-term impacts on the families were addressed. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the related control measures had a significant impact on hospital and territory health services in all countries [1]. While few studies analyzed the effect of the acute phase of the pandemic on paediatric palliative care (PPC) services [6,7,8,9], little is known about the long-term consequences and the difficulties of the post-lockdown period for children and families assisted by PPC networks. The network is constantly growing and, up to October 2021, has been in charge of about 200 children, one-third of them with very specific and complex needs
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
