ArticleThe Lancet regional health. Europe2021
Impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and associated lockdown measures on attendances at emergency departments in English hospitals: A retrospective database study.
Article in The Lancet regional health. Europe, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Access and use of general and mental health services before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ open · 2025Pooled it
- Heatstroke-related ambulance dispatch risk before and during COVID-19 pandemic: Subgroup analysis by age, severity, and incident place.The Science of the total environment · 2022Pooled it
- The impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on primary care contact among vulnerable populations in England: a controlled interrupted time-series study.BJGP open · 2025Article
- Does Calm Always Follow the Storm? A Comprehensive Temporal Analysis of Emergency Department Visits in Northern Italy Before and After the COVID-19 Pandemic.Epidemiologia (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Establishing Syndromic Surveillance of Acute Coronary Syndrome, Myocardial Infarction, and Stroke: Registry Study Based on Routine Data From German Emergency Departments.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2025Article
- The relationship between general practice characteristics, case-mix, and secondary care attendances/admissions before and after the COVID-19 pandemic: Protocol for an OpenSAFELY cohort study.Wellcome open research · 2025Article
- The impact of SARS-CoV-2 on emergency health care demand: inverse relationship between COVID-like illnesses and ED accesses in Genoa, Italy.Journal of preventive medicine and hygiene · 2024Article
- Acute care pathway assessed through performance indicators during the COVID-19 pandemic in OECD countries (2020-2021): a scoping review.BMC emergency medicine · 2024Article
- Article
- What was the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on unintentional injuries, in Canada and globally? A scoping review investigating how lockdown measures impacted the global burden of unintentional injury.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- An early warning precision public health approach for assessing COVID-19 vulnerability in the UK: the Moore-Hill Vulnerability Index (MHVI).BMC public health · 2023Article
- Changes in emergency department use in British Columbia, Canada, during the first 3 years of the COVID-19 pandemic.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2023Article
- Changes in emergency department utilisation in Germany before and during different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, using data from a national surveillance system up to June 2021.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Impact on emergency and elective hospital-based care in Scotland over the first 12 months of the pandemic: interrupted time-series analysis of national lockdowns.Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · 2022Article
- Impact of COVID-19 on outpatient appointments in children and young people in England: an observational study.BMJ open · 2022Observational
- Article
- Lessons from the frontline: Documenting the experiences of Pacific emergency care clinicians responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.The Lancet regional health. Western Pacific · 2022Review
- Impact of first UK COVID-19 lockdown on hospital admissions: Interrupted time series study of 32 million people.EClinicalMedicine · 2022Article
- Using routine emergency department data for syndromic surveillance of acute respiratory illness, Germany, week 10 2017 until week 10 2021.Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin · 2022Article
- The effect of the COVID-19 lockdown on mental health care use in South Africa: an interrupted time-series analysis.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe SARS-CoV-2 outbreak and associated lockdown measures have challenged healthcare. We examine how attendances to ED in England were impacted.
methodsInterrupted time series regression (January 2019 to June 2020) of data from EDs in 41 English NHS Trusts was used to estimate the initial decrease in attendances and the rate of increase following an interruption from 11 March - 7 April 2020, which included the 23 March lockdown in England.
findingsThe SARS-CoV-2 interruption led to an initial 51.1% reduction (95% CI 46.3-55.9%) in ED attendances followed by a linear increase in attendances of 3.0% per week (95% CI 2.5-3.5%). Significantly larger initial reductions were seen in those aged 0-19 years (69.1%), Indian (64.9%), Pakistani (71.8%), Bangladeshi (75.3%), African (63.5%) and Chinese people (74.5%), self-conveying attendees (60.3%) and those presenting with contusions or abrasions (66.9%), muscle and tendon injuries (65.6%), and those with a diagnosis that was not classifiable (72.7%). Significantly smaller initial reductions were seen in those aged 65-74 years (42.6%), 75+ years (40.1%), those conveyed by ambulance (31.9%), and those presenting with the following conditions: central nervous system (44.9%), haematological (44.0%), cardiac (43.7%), gastrointestinal (43.4%), gynaecological (43.2%), psychiatric (40.4%), poisoning (39.7%), cerebro-vascular (39.0%), endocrinological (36.1%), other vascular (34.6%), and maxillo-facial (19.7%). No significant differences in the initial reduction of activity were seen in subgroups defined by sex, deprivation, urbanicity or acuity.
interpretationThe SARS-CoV-2 outbreak and lockdown substantially reduced ED activity. The reduction varied by age groups, ethnicity, arrival mode and diagnostic group but not by sex, deprivation, urbanicity or acuity.
fundingNo funding to declare.
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