The Effect of COVID-19 on Healthcare
By Malebox
When cases of COVID-19 supposedly started to decline over the summer in the UK, people began to question what the pandemic’s wider effects have been on the NHS. Certainly there has been a clear shift away from hubs such as schools, care homes and hospitals from early on, with the government trying to reduce the level of human contact in these areas of higher transmission. Minimising the time which healthy people, and more importantly those who have been shielding, spend in areas of high COVID-19 incidence has been a priority for the NHS. This change has been facilitated by the rapid uptake of technology which has allowed for remote triaging and for some services to continue with remote care1. Although urgent services such as cancer, IVF, and mental health support have now been resumed in hospitals it may be a while before more elective services recommence in a hospital setting. It therefore seems only a natural progression for other non-urgent assessments and screenings, for example blood and fertility tests, to be done at home. Hopefully the NHS will continue to think outside the box and implement positive long term changes through the need to adapt.
Since the innovation of telehealth in the late 1950s and early 1960s the use of technology to bring healthcare to the home has been on the rise, however, COVID-19 has dramatically accelerated its adoption across primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare sectors. It has provided many doctors and patients with a safe, convenient and accessible way of communicating throughout the pandemic2. GP surgeries have perhaps seen the biggest shifts in practice, allowing all patients to be triaged on the phone, resulting in a 90% reduction of face to face appointments3,4. Could this actually be a model for the future? There have been worries that telehealth will further widen societal gaps due to some people not having access to a smartphone, however, GP surgeries should have the information required to identify those with access problems and consequently provide the necessary support5. Although it’s too early to make predictions about the long term future of online consultations when face-to-face appointments aren’t necessary, Professor Marshall, the chair of the Royal College of GPs, thinks at least 50% of appointments will continue via phone6. This will hopefully make for a more efficient and safer service for all. However, it should be noted that figures throughout the pandemic have consistently shown an overall reduction in appointments, due to patients being more reluctant to access NHS services. Technology systems will need careful evaluation before being properly integrated into the new norm of life, but this pandemic has been a good pilot and certainly catapulted it up the agendas for healthcare providers and funders alike.
Perhaps a less predictable consequence that has emerged during the pandemic has been the shift in public and medical opinion towards early testing, specifically at home, and more generally towards people taking greater onus of their own health7. The public have been forced to stop and think about their own personal health due to self isolation, travel restrictions and general ‘playing by the rules’ only suggested rather than enforced by the British government. Indeed, both politicians and healthcare professionals alike have been surprised by the extent to which the public have abided by the rules and therefore taken control of their own health to a large extent. Although many were previously aware that early medical tests for other illnesses can improve your rate of recovery, COVID-19 has served to highlight the necessity and benefits of early testing on an extreme scale, especially now as testing remains the sole route out of lockdown whilst we await the arrival of the vaccine. Testing has allowed those presenting with symptoms to understand the importance of self-isolating and therefore prevent the spread of the virus. People actively choosing to test themselves earlier allows for earlier diagnoses and therefore earlier and more informed treatment.
The recent shifts in mindset in favour of home testing and a more technologically reliant healthcare system have the potential to revolutionise the NHS and all the ancillary services that run alongside it. One such example of this is Malebox who are developing an at home semen analysis test, giving men the opportunity to have their sperm count, motility and morphology analysed by an embryologist, all from the comfort of their home. Malebox believes in facilitating informed health decisions — typically people have no awareness of their fertility until the point of actively trying to conceive, despite the fact that 1 in 6 couples will now struggle to conceive naturally. The Malebox community hopes that the recent increase in acceptance of early testing within a home environment will encourage males to take full advantage of this innovative male fertility test that is soon to be launched.
References
[2] https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2003539
[5] https://evisit.com/resources/10-pros-and-cons-of-telemedicine/
[6] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-52216222
[7] https://medicalfuturist.com/the-rise-of-at-home-lab-tests/
