ISSN: 2155-9570
Manchester Royal Eye Hospital, Manchester, UK
Research
The Effect of Lockdown due to COVID-19 on a Large Emergency Eye Department: The Manchester Experience
Author(s): James F Young*, Katie L Harron, Loreena Bilal, Jay A L Richardson and Felipe Eduardo Dhawahir-Scala
Aim: This study assesses the impact of the UK COVID-19 lockdown on Ophthalmology Emergency Services at one of the
largest dedicated Emergency Eye Departments in the UK.
Methods: We evaluated differences in attendances between 2019 and 2020 according to ethnicity, deprivation scores, age,
clinician grade, diagnosis, discharge rate and follow up length.
Results: The mean number of attendances started to drop on the 17th March 2020. The mean number of attendances before
versus after 17th March decreased by a factor of 2.2 with a 95% (CR) of (2.1,2.3); from 72 (95%CR 70,75) per day to 33
(95%CR 31,35). Attendance rates to the Emergency Eye Department during a 9-week period of lockdown dropped by 51%
(95%CI 47-52%) compared with the same period in 2019 and 48% (95% CI50-54%) compared with 2018. There was no
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DOI:
10.35248/2155-9570.20.11.859