The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Obstetrics and Gynaecology Practice
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented effect on obstetrics and gynaecology practice. Changes to practice included postponing non-urgent clinical work, changes to working environment, moving clinics and elective operating outside some hospitals, training anxieties due to redeployment, interruption of elective gynaecology surgeries and online examinations. In the UK, there was greater (NHS) public-private partnership emphasis on mental health issues, alterations to how we manage waiting lists and workload and incorporation of telemedicine.
Although the pandemic is over, its effects continue to linger, and we need to discuss how this has led to interim and permanent changes in practice. Concerns have been raised if those delays in face-to-face consultations with GPs and hospital clinicians may have adversely affected healthcare and delayed cancer diagnosis. Some of issues, such as greater awareness of mental wellbeing as well as alternative pathways to facilitate patient access (e.g., remote consultations), working from home and undertaking local, national, and international educational events online have been beneficial and should perhaps remain.
The aim of this article collection is to share information on how our practice had evolved and adapted to COVID-19.
This Article Collection aims to bring together original laboratory or clinical research articles, reviews relevant to practice or short communications and case reports relating to the impact and consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on obstetrics and gynaecology practice around the world.
Potential subtopics relating to obstetrics and gynaecology include (but are not limited to) education and training; mental health; fertility services; sexual and reproductive health; personal vignettes on how to maximise surgical training during the pandemic; national blueprints for recovery programmes; remote access telemedicine; public-private partnership; and events and examinations.