Dr Howard Marshall meets with Prof Franciso Leyva and Prof Mauro Biffi and explores the issues affecting the Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, UK in light of the recent COVID pandemic and draws parallels with Italian experiences from Dr Mauro Biffi, Bologna, UK.
Highlights include:
> The impact on the hospitals within the Birmingham NHS Trust: hear how during the peak of surge, they had to transfer patients across hospitals as IC units became overwhelmed and how staff with ITU experience were upscaled to expand their ability to treat more patients, enabling them to treat up to 500 patients if needed.
> The impact on delivering cardiology services: hear the effect COVID has had on the hospital’s ability to manage and prioritise cardiology patients and procedures and how new triage methods and hospital pathways have been implemented in response.
> How secondary prevention patients are being prioritized as well as the difficult decisions being taken to ensure the safety of primary prevention patients.
> How COVID-19 is expediting the use of remote monitoring and diagnostic hubs to reduce hospital footfall as they discuss what might soon become be the new ‘normal.
Reproduced with permission from the British Heart Rhythm Society.
