Foot and ankle service adaptation in response to COVID-19 and beyond

I Feeley; T McAleese; K Clesham; D Moloney; G Crozier-Shaw; A Hughes; T Bayer

doi:10.1016/j.amsu.2020.04.023

Foot and ankle service adaptation in response to COVID-19 and beyond

Ann Med Surg (Lond). 2020 Apr 28:54:62-64. doi: 10.1016/j.amsu.2020.04.023. eCollection 2020 Jun.

Authors

I Feeley¹, T McAleese^{1

2}, K Clesham¹, D Moloney¹, G Crozier-Shaw¹, A Hughes¹, T Bayer¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Trauma and Orthopaedics, Midlands Regional Hospital Tullamore, Tullamore, Ireland.
² National University of Ireland Galway, Co Galway, Ireland.

Abstract

The disruption to healthcare provision as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has compelled us to streamline healthcare delivery. This has given us an opportunity to implement healthcare technology, reform inter-disciplinary collaboration and ultimately enhance patient care. We discuss some of the advances made by the foot and ankle department at our hospital. These innovations have broad applicability and will hopefully ignite discussion amoung a number of healthcare teams about improving the future care of their patients.

Keywords: COVID-19; Healthcare technology; Inter-disciplinary teams; Orthopaedic service adaptation; Public health.