Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Utilisation of Medical Oncology Services at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Srinagar, India: A Retrospective Study

Introduction: Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) Pandemic affected healthcare delivery worldwide from all quarters be it routine or essential care, including cancer care. All aspects like screening, diagnosis, and treatment were affected regardless of the developmental status of countries.

Aim: To find out the extent and magnitude of cancer care affected during pandemic by comparing the data during pandemic for outpatient visits, new registrations, admissions, and day-care chemotherapy sessions with prepandemic data.

Materials and Methods: This retrospective study was conducted in the Department of Medical Oncology of State Cancer Institute in Srinagar, India. The parameters assessed were the number of outpatient visits, new registrations, admissions, and day care chemotherapy sessions from the department of Medical Oncology. Anonymised cumulative data of all the patients who availed these services was included. Data were collected for eight months, during pandemic in 2020 and were compared with the data from previous year 2019. The effect of lockdown was assessed by comparing these parameters with the non lockdown period. Statistical analysis was done by independent t-test.

Results: The number of outpatient visits dropped from 15425 from non lockdown period to 12670 in lockdown period (p-value=0.019), number of new admissions from 1613 to 1418 (p-value=0.001), and chemotherapy sessions from 9374 to 8081, (p-value=0.004). The number of patient registrations also declined but the drop was not significant (p-value=0.171). All the parameters except in-patient admission improved during the non lockdown period with the highest improvement in registration, but inpatient admission revealed a similar reduction as in the lockdown period.

Conclusion: There was a significant effect of lock down due to COVID-19 pandemic on the number of outpatient visits, new admissions and chemotherapy sessions. This infers that, the treatment protocols and chemotherapeutic management of cancer care were badly affected by the advent of the pandemic.