Background: The COVID19 pandemic has impacted health and social care in Ireland especially in inner city Dublin. Little is known about the factors that determine successful outcomes. We will examine the characteristics of COVID infected patients attending a large teaching hospital in Dublin’s inner city, conducting outpatient follow-up, and examine factors associated with improved outcomes, and measure longer term complications, both general quality of life as well as neurological, cardiac and respiratory.
Aims: To determine baseline characteristics / outcomes of patients with COVID19 under the care of the Infectious Diseases Department at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital.
Methods: The study will take place in Dublin’s North Inner City – an area with high levels of social deprivation and a high incidence of COVID19 infection. It is recognised that local communities are therefore at high risk of infection and therefore of experiencing adverse outcomes. To date, 349 patients have been managed by the Infectious Diseases Department at the hospital and by 30/4/20, we estimate that at least 500 will have been cared for by the team. Currently, when patients are referred for assessment by the team, patients are eith admitted to hospital or enrolled on the hospital’s ambulatory home monitoring programme. We will i) retrospectively examine clinical records and extract anonymised data on patient demographics, baseline morbidity, initial outcomes and ii) prospectively examine healthcare outcomes among those patients who consent to follow up at three time points (1-3,6 and 12 months post discharge). Deliverables: To inform health service policies that will attenuate the adverse impacts of the COVID pandemic on population health, the project will involve a collaboration with Ireland’s HSE Clinical Programmes, Health Protection Surveillance Centre, and the European Union’s CHAFEA and ECDC. As such, outputs such as technical reports for stakeholders (at 1, 4, 7 months) will be prioritised.
