The Impact of COVID-19 on Ophthalmology Training and Services in Selected Public Hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: COVID-19 pandemic is having a huge impact in our personal and professional lives. For Ophthalmology department there was a huge gap on the training programs and services as almost all elective activities, procedures and services were interrupted in our units. Objectives: To assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on ophthalmology training and services in public Hospitals in Addis Ababa, central Ethiopia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at selected public hospitals delivering ophthalmology training and services in Addis Ababa from December 2021 to June 2022 Convenient sampling was used to select study areas . The study had two arms. One arm of the study focused on collection of data using structured questionnaire from ophthalmic health professionals who are working and passing through the pandemic. Another arm of the study is focused on collection of data from the registry of the hospitals and will try to make a comparison b/n the data before the start of the pandemic and after beginning of the pandemic Results: A total of 120 participants completed the questionnaire. More than two third of the respondents reported that they had some psychological impact due to the pandemic in their profession. A total number of comprehensive outpatient visit seen within 12 month decreased by 20 % compared to the pre - COVID-19 era. A total number of major OR surgeries within 12 months was decreased by 57.4% compared to the pre-COVID-19 era. A total number of minor procedures done within 12 months reduced by nearly 50%. Major ophthalmology services were largely affected during the first 4 month of the pandemic. Total number of emergency visit within 12 months was reduced by 56 % compared to the pre- COVID pandemic era. More than one third of the participants 45(37.4%) rate the negative impact of COVID-19 on academic training such as extension of training periods (12(10%)), extension of residency matching programs (7(5, 8%)), decreased elective procedures (22(18.3%) and decreased patient flow (4(3, 3%)). DISCUSSION : The finding of this study on comprehensive outpatient visit ,major and minor surgeries on the first 4 month after the pandemic was higher than the study done in UK,Queen’s Medical Centre, (on June 2020) done by Darren ShuJeng Ting ,et.al. And similar with the study done in Egypt by Abdullatif et al. Academic training was compromised due to the pandemic.