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Curtis HJ, MacKenna B, Croker R, et al. OpenSAFELY NHS Service Restoration Observatory 1: primary care clinical activity in England during the first wave of COVID-19. Br J Gen Pract. 2021;72(714):e63-e74doi: 10.3399/BJGP.2021.0380.
Curtis, H. J., MacKenna, B., Croker, R., Inglesby, P., Walker, A. J., Morley, J., Mehrkar, A., Morton, C. E., Bacon, S., Hickman, G., Bates, C., Evans, D., Ward, T., Cockburn, J., Davy, S., Bhaskaran, K., Schultze, A., Rentsch, C. T., Williamson, E. J., Hulme, W. J., McDonald, H. I., Tomlinson, L., Mathur, R., Drysdale, H., Eggo, R. M., Wing, K., Wong, A. Y., Forbes, H., Parry, J., Hester, F., Harper, S., Evans, S. J., Douglas, I. J., Smeeth, L., Goldacre, B. (2022). OpenSAFELY NHS Service Restoration Observatory 1: primary care clinical activity in England during the first wave of COVID-19. The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 72(714), e63-e74. https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0380
Curtis, Helen J, et al. "OpenSAFELY NHS Service Restoration Observatory 1: primary care clinical activity in England during the first wave of COVID-19." The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners vol. 72,714 (2022): e63-e74. doi: https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGP.2021.0380
Curtis HJ, MacKenna B, Croker R, Inglesby P, Walker AJ, Morley J, Mehrkar A, Morton CE, Bacon S, Hickman G, Bates C, Evans D, Ward T, Cockburn J, Davy S, Bhaskaran K, Schultze A, Rentsch CT, Williamson EJ, Hulme WJ, McDonald HI, Tomlinson L, Mathur R, Drysdale H, Eggo RM, Wing K, Wong AY, Forbes H, Parry J, Hester F, Harper S, Evans SJ, Douglas IJ, Smeeth L, Goldacre B. OpenSAFELY NHS Service Restoration Observatory 1: primary care clinical activity in England during the first wave of COVID-19. Br J Gen Pract. 2021 Dec 31;72(714):e63-e74. doi: 10.3399/BJGP.2021.0380. Print 2022 Jan. PMID: 34750105; PMCID: PMC8589464.
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Br J Gen Pract. 2021 Dec 31;72(714):e63-e74. doi: 10.3399/BJGP.2021.0380. Print 2022 Jan.

OpenSAFELY NHS Service Restoration Observatory 1: primary care clinical activity in England during the first wave of COVID-19.

The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners

Helen J Curtis, Brian MacKenna, Richard Croker, Peter Inglesby, Alex J Walker, Jessica Morley, Amir Mehrkar, Caroline E Morton, Seb Bacon, George Hickman, Chris Bates, David Evans, Tom Ward, Jonathan Cockburn, Simon Davy, Krishnan Bhaskaran, Anna Schultze, Christopher T Rentsch, Elizabeth J Williamson, William J Hulme, Helen I McDonald, Laurie Tomlinson, Rohini Mathur, Henry Drysdale, Rosalind M Eggo, Kevin Wing, Angel Ys Wong, Harriet Forbes, John Parry, Frank Hester, Sam Harper, Stephen Jw Evans, Ian J Douglas, Liam Smeeth, Ben Goldacre,

Affiliations

  1. The DataLab, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford.
  2. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London.
  3. TPP, Leeds.

PMID: 34750105 PMCID: PMC8589464 DOI: 10.3399/BJGP.2021.0380

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted healthcare activity. The NHS stopped non-urgent work in March 2020, later recommending services be restored to near-normal levels before winter where possible.

AIM: To describe the volume and variation of coded clinical activity in general practice, taking respiratory disease and laboratory procedures as examples.

DESIGN AND SETTING: Working on behalf of NHS England, a cohort study was conducted of 23.8 million patient records in general practice,

METHOD: Activity using Clinical Terms Version 3 codes and keyword searches from January 2019 to September 2020 are described.

RESULTS: Activity recorded in general practice declined during the pandemic, but largely recovered by September. There was a large drop in coded activity for laboratory tests, with broad recovery to pre-pandemic levels by September. One exception was the international normalised ratio test, with a smaller reduction (median tests per 1000 patients in 2020: February 8.0; April 6.2; September 6.9). The pattern of recording for respiratory symptoms was less affected, following an expected seasonal pattern and classified as 'no change'. Respiratory infections exhibited a sustained drop, not returning to pre-pandemic levels by September. Asthma reviews experienced a small drop but recovered, whereas chronic obstructive pulmonary disease reviews remained below baseline.

CONCLUSION: An open-source software framework was delivered to describe trends and variation in clinical activity across an unprecedented scale of primary care data. The COVD-19 pandemic led to a substantial change in healthcare activity. Most laboratory tests showed substantial reduction, largely recovering to near-normal levels by September, with some important tests less affected and recording of respiratory disease codes was mixed.

© The Authors.

Keywords: COVID-19; electronic health records; general practice; primary health care

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