5.8 Lakh surgeries may be put off: Study

London, May 15

More than 5,80,000 planned surgeries in India may be cancelled or delayed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a study conducted by an international consortium.

The study, published in the British Journal of Surgery, has projected that, based on a 12-week period of peak disruption to hospital services due to Covid-19, around 28.4 million elective surgeries worldwide will be cancelled or postponed in 2020.

This will lead to patients facing a lengthy wait for their health issues to be resolved, according to the research conducted by the CovidSurg Collaborative, a research network of over 5,000 surgeons from 120 countries focused on the impact of Covid-19 on surgical care.

The study was led by members based in the UK, Benin, Ghana, India, Italy, Mexico, Nigeria, Rwanda, Spain, South Africa and the US.

The modelling study indicates that each additional week of disruption to hospital services will be associated with a further 2.4 million cancellations. The researchers, including those from the University of Birmingham in the UK, collected detailed information from surgeons across 359 hospitals and 71 countries on plans for cancellation of elective surgery. — PTI

Long wait

• 28.4 million elective surgeries worldwide will be cancelled or postponed in 2020
• Orthopaedic procedures will be cancelled most frequently, with 6.3 million orthopaedic surgeries cancelled worldwide