Allen Foster Community Eye Health Research Centre, Gullapalli Pratibha Rao International Centre for Advancement of Rural Eyecare; Brien Holden Eye Research Centre, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, India.
Brien Holden Eye Research Centre; Kallam Anji Reddy Campus, L V Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, India.
Indian J Ophthalmol. 2021 Mar;69(3):695-700. doi: 10.4103/ijo.IJO_3143_20.
The aim of this study was to report on the impact of COVID-19 "Unlock-I" on Network of Eye Centers in Southern India.
Our eye health pyramid model has a network of eye care centers in four Indian states. The network constitutes a center of excellence (CoE) at the apex followed by tertiary care centers (TC) located in urban areas, secondary care centers (SC), and primary care vision centers (VC) at the base located in rural areas. We collected data on patients seen between June 2019 and June 2020, which included age, gender, total patients seen (new or follow-up), and socioeconomic status (paying and nonpaying). A comparative study was done between the data for outpatients and surgeries performed pre-COVID-19 and during Unlock-I in COVID-19 period.
There was a 36.71% reduction in the overall outpatients seen in June 2020 (n = 83,161) compared to June 2019 (n = 131,395). The reduction was variable across different levels of the pyramid with the highest reduction in CoE (54.18%), followed by TCs (40.37%), SCs (30.49%) and VCs (18.85%). Similar pattern was seen for new paying patients with the highest reduction in CoE (54.22%), followed by TCs (25.86%) and SCs (4.9%). A 43.67% reduction was noted in the surgeries performed in June 2020 (n = 6,168), compared to June 2019 (n = 10,950). Reduction in paying services was highest in CoE (47.52%), followed by TCs (15.17%) and SCs (4.87%). There was no significant change in the uptake of services by gender in the network.
Highest reduction in patient footfalls during "Unlock-1" was noted in urban centers. Going forward, there is a need to develop strategies to provide eye care closer to the doorsteps.
本研究旨在报告 COVID-19“解锁-I”对印度南部眼中心网络的影响。
我们的眼保健金字塔模型在印度四个邦拥有一个眼保健中心网络。该网络由一个卓越中心（CoE）构成顶点，其次是位于城市地区的三级护理中心（TC）、二级护理中心（SC）和位于农村地区的初级保健视力中心（VC）。我们收集了 2019 年 6 月至 2020 年 6 月期间就诊患者的数据，其中包括年龄、性别、就诊总人数（新患者或随访患者）和社会经济状况（付费和非付费）。对 COVID-19 解锁-I 期间与 COVID-19 之前的门诊和手术数据进行了对比研究。
与 2019 年 6 月（131395 例）相比，2020 年 6 月（83161 例）的总门诊就诊人数减少了 36.71%。这种减少在金字塔的不同层次上是不同的，CoE 的减少幅度最大（54.18%），其次是 TC（40.37%）、SC（30.49%）和 VC（18.85%）。新付费患者也呈现出类似的模式，CoE 的减少幅度最大（54.22%），其次是 TC（25.86%）和 SC（4.9%）。与 2019 年 6 月（10950 例）相比，2020 年 6 月（6168 例）的手术数量减少了 43.67%。CoE 的付费服务减少幅度最大（47.52%），其次是 TC（15.17%）和 SC（4.87%）。网络中按性别划分的服务利用率没有明显变化。
在“解锁-I”期间，城市中心的患者就诊人数减少幅度最大。今后，需要制定策略，以便在更接近家门口的地方提供眼保健服务。
