The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the health services provided by the Cardiothoracic Minia University Hospital in Egypt: A single-center retrospective observational study

BACKGROUND: The emergence of the new coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2) in late 2019 resulted in a worldwide pandemic, which had severe consequences on the global health systems. There were drastic strains on the public health services. This, in turn, markedly affected patients with non-coronavirus disease (COVID-19) problems. AIM: This study aimed to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 infection on the health services provided to patients at the cardiothoracic university hospital, Minia University. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of data about services provided to patients at Minia Cardiothoracic University hospital was obtained from pre-pandemic era (2018–2019) and during the pandemic time (2020–2021). The two sets of data were compared together. Data were collected about the number of patients who underwent different procedures such as Pulmonary Function Tests (PFTs), sleep studies or interventional chest procedures (bronchoscopy and thoracoscopy). Also, data were collected about the number of patients admitted in the chest ward, respiratory intensive care unit (ICU) or Coronary care unit and the number of patients who visited cardiothoracic, cardiology or chest outpatient clinics. RESULTS: There is 81.4% reduction in the number of Pulmonary Function Testsperformed during the period 2020–2021 compared with the period 2018–2019, where the number of patients admitted to chest inward decreased by 66.4%. The number of sleep studies performed reduced by 61.5%, while the number of different outpatient clinical visits reduced to similar values (45.8% for cardiothoracic clinic, 45.4% for cardiology clinic and 40.5% for chest clinic). Regarding respiratory ICU admissions, the study reported a reduction of 35.7% and also Coronary care unit admissions decreased by 30.6%. Interventional pulmonary procedures had the lowest reduction rate (0.7%). CONCLUSION: Different health services were negatively affected by the emergence of COVID-19 era in both pulmonary and non-pulmonary fields.