Managing Cancer Center During the SARS-COVID-19 Pandemic: Moroccan Experience

Abstract

Objective: The principal aim of this work is to describe the different measures taken by three departments involved in treatment of patients followed for cancer during the SARS pandemic COVID-19. Method: A prospective study, using anonymous questionnaire, among the medical and paramedical team of hematology, medical oncology and radiotherapy during the pandemic. Results: The staff nursing was mainly constituted by a paramedical team (71,5%), with female predominance at 77,8%, sex ratio F/M=3,5, the high majority range age of the team was 30-45 years, living as a couple (52,4%). During the Covid pandemic, all our staff used bib, normal bib (76,2%), FPP2 (20,6%) combined bib (FFP2/normal) in 28,6% with visor in 6,3%. The duration of using of the same bib was variable, it has been used for 12h and more in 52, 5% and during 4h, 6h and 8h in 12,5%, 7, 5% and 27,5% respectively. For the out work management, more than half of our team return home without confinement to their family or children and only 8% have been confined on hotel. Our staff expressed a very important professional impact in 87,3% as well as in their personal lives in 85,7%.Conclusion: The vulnerability of the patients followed for cancer had obliged heath professional in this field to be even more rigorous and more vigilant on protective measures while ensuring continuity of care during the COVID pandemic. Our study illustrates that, despite the staff’s efforts of adaptation, the impact in personal and professional lives has been not negligible.

Cross‐sectional survey of the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on cancer screening programs in selected low‐ and middle‐income countries: Study from the IARC COVID‐19 impact study group

“…1 The lockdowns and movement restrictions, slowing down of nonemergency services and diversion of fiscal and manpower resources will deeply impact entire continuum of cancer care. 2 The pandemicinduced health crisis will weaken health systems in most low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) that may shift priorities back to infectious disease control. This is likely to have a long-term impact on cancer prevention interventions, including cancer screening, which in turn will widen the existing disparities in oncology care.…”

“…The Coronavirus Disease (COVID‐19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) infection has claimed more than 1.4 million lives worldwide in less than a year 1 . The lockdowns and movement restrictions, slowing down of nonemergency services and diversion of fiscal and manpower resources will deeply impact entire continuum of cancer care 2 . The pandemic‐induced health crisis will weaken health systems in most low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs) that may shift priorities back to infectious disease control.…”

The Impact of COVID-19 on Cancer Care in the Post Pandemic World: Five Major Lessons Learnt from Challenges and Countermeasures of Major Asian Cancer Centres

“…Workload was affected and reduced partly because of intentional rescheduling of patients but also partly due to fear of patients in seeking treatment for fear of being infected, especially since patients with cancer could be at an elevated risk of COVID-19 severe infection and mortality (Shankar et al, 2020). On the other hand, several institutions highlighted the additional need to allocate staff in COVID-19 specific wards, which disturbed the human resource management observed in European Union (van de Haar et al, 2020), United States of America (Lou et al, 2020), United Kingdom (Greenwood and Swanton, 2021), Saudi Arabia (Alessy et al, 2020), United Arab Emirates (Al-Shamsi et al, 2020), Greek (Miltiadou et al, 2020), India (Kumar et al, 2020), and Morocco (Bouanani et al, 2020) . Whether this will result in an increase in late stage diagnoses remains to be confirmed with time.…”

“…The negative impact of the pandemic was particularly acute in low and middle-income countries (LMIC) with limited resources, poor infrastructure, shortage of health care providers and organized care teams, scarcity of medical supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE), and poor access to technology leading to inability in providing and delivering optimal care (Basu, 2020;Bouanani et al, 2020;Faizal et al, 2020;McMahon et al, 2020).…”

The Era of Covid-19; Its’ Impact on Cancer Patient Experience in Southwest Nigeria

“…The movement restrictions and lockdowns in various countries led to the slowing down of non-emergency services and the diversion of physical and manpower resources. This slowdown deeply impacted the entire continuum of cancer care [9].…”