Perceptions of Risk of Attending Hospital During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A UK Public Opinion Survey

Abstract

Background: To inform clinical and research practice in secondary care in the COVID-19 pandemic we consulted patients and the public on their feelings of safety, factors affecting feelings of safety, intention to participate in research, attitudes to research and comfort with new ways of working in order to inform secondary care policy on restarting research and some clinical activity. Method: An online survey was used to collect public opinions on attending hospitals. The survey link was circulated via the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Public Involvement (PPI) Leads network and social media.Results: 402 people completed the survey. Participants age ranged from the 18-85+, with the majority (337 (84%)) aged between 35 to 74 years. There were a higher number of women (77%) compared to men (23%); and were mainly White European (91%) compared to Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) (6%), or other (2%).Results for feelings of safety scales show bi-polarity with few respondents in the middle ground. Implementation of COVID-19 related safety measures such as social distancing, use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and cleaning were strongly supported by most respondents. There was ambivalence around less certain measures such as staff antigen and antibody testing. Respondents were most likely to participate in research related to their own condition, COVID-19 and vaccine, but less likely to participate as healthy volunteers, especially if suffering from a pre-existing comorbidity identified with increased risk or were female. There was general agreement that participants are comfortable with new ways of working, such as remote consultation, though women and BAME respondents were less comfortable.Conclusions: Findings raise concerns for health inequalities already impacting some groups in the pandemic. The role of clinical necessity and personal benefit support the reopening of services in line with clinical necessity. Moderate caution in respect of vaccine research relative to patient-participant research presents a challenge for pending recruitment demands, and would benefit from qualitative research to explore themes and concerns in more depth and support development and targeting of key messaging.

Healthcare contacts with self-harm during COVID-19: An e-cohort whole-population-based study using individual-level linked routine electronic health records in Wales, UK, 2016—March 2021

“…This is critical, since the proportion of those contacting GPs with self-harm peaked by 6 percentage points in April 2020, and during the study period 20% were ‘seen in GPs only’ ( Fig 3 ). A UK survey study during Wave 1 reported people feeling least safe and confident attending Accident and Emergency departments compared to other types of hospital contacts, such as for essential surgery or clinical blood test [ 30 ]. This fear and a willingness to protect secondary healthcare provision may have resulted in patients preferentially contacting GPs during Wave 1 but not Wave 2.…”

Part 1: Supporting the Reduction of Suicide in the General Population of Wales via the use of Structured Professional Judgement; Part 2: Identifying the Factors Moderating Suicidal Thoughts and Suicide Attempts During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Attendances at accident and emergency departments, a service that can play an important role in identifying and preventing domestic abuse (Ali et al, 2016), have also decreased substantially over the pandemic (Pritchard et al, 2020). Secondly, the act of physically not being able to leave the home that is shared with the abuser is likely to increase the frequency of abuse and exacerbate feelings of entrapment.…”