A Comprehensive Review on the Working of a Radiation Oncology Facility During the Covid-19 Pandemic and Adapting it for South Asian Settings

Abstract

Background: With the pandemic gaining a firm foothold globally, various governments world-wide are trying hard to halt its unprecedented spread. The pandemic is challenging the healthcare professionals in unique ways and forcing the frontline fighters to come up with dynamic changes in almost all disciplines of medical science. This article is aimed at a detailed review of the exist-ing guidelines for radiotherapy practice during this pandemic from across the world. Methods: This review has been organised under specific subheadings that pertains to the functioning of a Radiation Oncology facility in South Asian countries like India. After a detailed Zoom video conference between the authors, it was decided to focus the review under the following sub-headings: staff allocation, staff education, screening of patients, patient waiting area modifica-tion, patient selection, radiotherapy planning and execution, review of patients on radiotherapy, brachytherapy, inpatient admissions, follow up, resident training and treatment of suspected or positive COVID 19 patients.Results: After discussion among the authors, a consensus working suggestion during the COVID-19 pandemic has been proposed for a radiotherapy center in a South Asian country like India. All the authors worked simultaneously on a Google doc docu-ment to develop this manuscript. Conclusions: This paper can be a reference document for the functioning of a radiotherapy facility during the COVID19 pandemic. As the infrastructure of different institutes vary and so does each patient, the importance of fine tuning and tailoring our final decisions before treating a patient in this unprecedented crisis cannot be undermined.

Measuring Occupational Fatigue among Higher and Middle Management at a Specialized Cancer Center during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The COVID-19 epidemic caused a slew of severe issues for health institutions, such as supply shortages, critical care bed shortages, insufficient capacity, the need to adapt treatment, and financial loss. Health managers had to transition to a crisis mode from a conventional leadership style with an effective command structure during the COVID-19 pandemic (Basu, 2020;Dewi et al, 2020;Haresh et al, 2020). These changes in roles and responsibilities may develop their occupational fatigue.…”

“…In today's complicated health environments related to the COVID-19 pandemic, many extra responsibilities and burdens are added to health managers and leaders to protect patients and staff, ensure the availability of adequate staffing and protective equipment, prepare frontline professionals to handle COVID-19 patients, and achieve high-quality care and organizational outcomes. These added responsibilities urge them to be more visible accessible at all times, which leads to an increase in their work hours and their meetings' participation and organization (online and onsite) (Basu, 2020;Dewi et al, 2020;Haresh et al, 2020). All these factors may put them at risk of occupational fatigue (Basu, 2020;Prestia, 2020;Stamps et al, 2020).…”

Treatment Delay during Radiotherapy of Cancer Patients due to COVID-19 Pandemic

“…infection, the pandemic has caused a delay in oncology treatments (Mallick et al, 2021). However, to overcome treatment delays and provide well-balanced cancer care to their patients, many institutes used pragmatic solutions such as zoning, triaging, hypofractionated radiotherapy regimens, and telemedicine facilities, to name a few (Dewi et al, 2020;Haresh et al, 2020).…”

“…This could be due to the immunocompromised state of cancer patients, caused partly by cancer itself and partly by treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy. The effect of the pandemic was not only on the patients but also on the staff who came in close contact with infected patients such as nurses and radiation technologists (Chetia et al, 2020;Haresh et al, 2020).…”

Review on the Oncology Practice in the Midst of COVID-19 Crisis: The Challenges and Solutions

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