Children and COVID-19 Research Library

During the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) emergency, in the pediatric surgical setting, it has been essential to avoid and contain infections as well as to protect both the patients and the surgical team. During this emergency, procedures and workflow were adapted to provide the safest possible environment for both the surgical team and the patients. Pediatric surgical activities were reorganized during the COVID-19 pandemic at the “Vittore Buzzi” Children’s Hospital, which is a pediatric/maternal hospital located in Milan (Lombardy Region), Italy. Resources were optimized in order to maintain high levels of care and quality of assistance. During the COVID-19 emergency, the pediatric surgical department at the “Vittore Buzzi” Children’s Hospital became an acute care surgical service.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in large-scale changes to the National Health Service (NHS) systems in the UK to accommodate a predicted surge in acutely unwell adults presenting to emergency and critical care departments. This article describes a rapid, multicentre surveillance project with three main aims: (1) to identify the number of children with delayed presentations to hospital in large emergency departments; (2) to find out what proportion of these delays was due to hesitance of parents in attending versus the proportion that was due to advice from primary care staff or NHS 111 referrals; and (3) to find out whether these delays might have resulted in harm to children (using admission to hospital as a proxy).

This short communication describes the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the paediatric population of French West Indies and it underlines ethical and policy problems.