School of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK.
University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
J Card Surg. 2021 May;36(5):1593-1596. doi: 10.1111/jocs.15206. Epub 2020 Dec 1.
The coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in widespread economic, health and social disruptions. The delivery of cardiovascular care has been stifled during the pandemic to adhere to infection control measures as a way of protecting patients and the workforce at large. This cautious approach has been protective since individuals with COVID-19 and cardiovascular disease are anticipated to have poorer outcomes and an increased risk of death. The combination of postponing elective cardiovascular surgeries, reduced acute care and long-term cardiac damage directly resulting from COVID-19 will likely have increased the demand for cardiac care, particularly from patients presenting with more severe symptoms. The combination of increased demand and inhibited supply will likely result in huge backlog of unmet patients' needs. The novelty, virulence and infectivity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 has caused substantial morbidity and mortality, thus necessitating modifications to the UK government's healthcare strategy. Without improving cost efficiency, the UK's ageing population will likely need an increasing spend on cardiac surgery simply to maintain the same level of service. However, the government's short-term increase in spending is unsustainable especially in the face of ongoing economic uncertainty. This means that the long-term impact of COVID-19 will only increase the need to find innovative ways of delivering equivalent or superior cardiac care at a reduced unit cost.
新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19）大流行导致了广泛的经济、健康和社会混乱。为了遵守感染控制措施，以保护患者和广大工作人员，心血管保健服务在大流行期间受到了抑制。这种谨慎的方法是有保护作用的，因为预计 COVID-19 患者和心血管疾病患者的预后更差，死亡风险更高。推迟选择性心血管手术、减少急性护理以及 COVID-19 直接导致的长期心脏损伤，这将可能增加对心脏护理的需求，特别是对出现更严重症状的患者。需求增加和供应抑制的结合，可能会导致大量未满足的患者需求积压。严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2 的新颖性、毒性和传染性导致了大量的发病率和死亡率，因此需要修改英国政府的医疗保健策略。如果不提高成本效益，英国不断老龄化的人口可能需要增加心脏手术的支出，仅仅是为了维持相同水平的服务。然而，政府的短期支出增加是不可持续的，尤其是在经济持续不确定的情况下。这意味着 COVID-19 的长期影响只会增加寻找创新方法以降低单位成本提供同等或更高质量的心脏护理的必要性。
