Are patients' fears of catching COVID-19 during an emergency hospital admission with an acute urological problem justified?-A UK epicentre experience

Background: To establish the risk of catching COVID-19 as urology emergency inpatient and assess patients' fears and attitudes towards seeking help.

Methods: A single-centre retrospective study of urological emergency admissions was conducted over a 10-week period in 2019 and compared to same period of 2020 pandemic. Also, a telephone survey was performed based on a COVID-19 fear questionnaire.

Results: In-hospital, infection rate was 0.82% during or within 28 days of discharge with no related mortality. The majority of patients were afraid to visit A&E during the pandemic with less being afraid to visit their GPs; 64% were reluctant to seek medical input by trying self-treatment; 56% admitted intentional delay to visit the hospital. Additionally, 56% considered risk of getting COVID-19 was higher rather than leaving their condition untreated. Interestingly, the vast majority (82%) stated that they would not change approach regarding hospital visits if the same situation occurred.

Conclusions: The risk of contracting COVID 19 while a urology in patient in a COVID-19 epicentre was very low with no COVID-19-related mortality. Our data support that patients should be encouraged to attend rather than stay at home during future surges in the pandemic to prevent further non-COVID-19-related harm.