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- Published on: 19 December 2021
- Published on: 19 December 2021Altered healthcare-seeking behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic and moving forward
Dear Editor,
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The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the NHS and its patients is indisputably far reaching, and this study [1] provides a much-needed perspective into how healthcare seeking behaviours were influenced during this time. The Emergency Department Syndromic Survey System (EDISS) data showed Emergency departments (ED) across the country showed a 25-50% decrease in attendances [2], raising concerns that individuals with possibly, life-threatening illnesses were potentially avoiding hospitals rather than seeking medical attention in a timely manner [2]. By looking into how the general population evaluated the severity, urgency and impact of various eye symptoms [1], the authors provide us with a better understanding of the driving forces and barriers to seeking healthcare, by doing which, they shed light on areas for which nationwide public health messages might not be sufficiently educating people on the importance of accessing healthcare appropriately for conditions that can be life-threatening, or in this case sight-threatening.
The WHO declared the SARS-CoV-2 infection a pandemic on 11th March 2020 [3]. Subsequently, the UK Government imposed a national lockdown on 23rd March 2020 [4], with the aim of reducing pressures on the NHS and curbing infection rates. “Vulnerable” individuals were advised to “shield” [5]. The NHS saw a transition from face-to-face consultations to increasingly more virtual consultations [6], with many elective procedures bei...Conflict of Interest:
None declared.