How well prepared are dermatologists redeployed to COVID‐19 wards?

Abstract

How well prepared are dermatologists redeployed to COVID-19 wards? Dear Editor, Since December 2019, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has been posing a serious challenge for the national health systems of numerous countries, such as Italy or the United States (US). 1

Unmet Health Needs During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Although it is a known fact that timely access to health services is essential for optimum physical, mental, and social health, it is clear that such measures as transforming many hospitals into pandemic hospitals during the pandemic process, suspending outpatient clinic examinations, limiting face-to-face examinations, and calling people not to go to hospitals unless there is an emergency are structural barriers to meeting the health needs of the society (7). Similarly, in other studies, the main barriers to health services during the pandemic period have been listed as fear of being infected with COVID-19, lack of services, job and health insurance losses, and difficulties in transportation and looking after children at home (8)(9)(10)(11)(12). Furthermore, losing trust in health care institutions and fear have caused communities to deliberately and widely avoid the health system, leading to significant reductions in the use of health facilities.…”

“…The pandemic has been further shown to increase unmet health needs in India. These unmet needs have increased even more in cases where health resources and health care personnel are deployed to manage 16.1% (334) I followed the recommendations from the media such as the internet, television, or radio 11% (229) I received support from a health care personnel I knew over the phone 10.4% (216) I followed the advice of my friends, neighbours and relatives 4% (83) I went to healers who were not medical personnel 0.2% (4) the COVID-19 pandemic, disrupting routine and emergency health care services (11,12).…”

“…The epidemic and response to the epidemic have resulted in reduced access to health care services and a significant decrease in its use (4)(5)(6). While structural reasons include the fact that many doctors and clinics closed their offices or limited face-to-face visits during the first months of the crisis (7), the followings should be considered among other reasons: job and health insurance losses, difficulties in transportation and childcare, and fear of being infected with or transmitting the virus (8)(9)(10)(11)(12).…”

El día después: el impacto de la pandemia COVID-19 en la residencia de Dermatología

“…Thus, in some countries residents doctors were recruited of specialties other than internal medicine, such as Dermatology, to act in care of patients with Covid-19. 2 , 6 Hence, the current literature has demonstrated an intense worrying, understandable, with the provision of human resources to attend the massive health demand during Covid-19 pandemic. However, some of these studies approach this topic under a shallow and immediatist overview, such as Stoj et al, 7 evoking deontological aspects to justify the idea of resident doctors as a “cheap labor”, who need to be always available to health managers and health services.…”

Psychiatrists as internists: Some considerations following a COVID-19 redeployment experience

“…In fact, psychiatrists are not the only who have experienced difficulties during the COVID-19 outbreak, other specialties have also suffered from their lack of medical training when responding to the crisis. 9 However, psychiatrists are often prone to despise the more medical part of the biopsychosocial model, perhaps because of the mistaken belief that a biological approach is not compatible with a humane, patient-centered management. Several proposals have been made to try to enhance general medicine skills during residency in psychiatry.…”