The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on home mechanical ventilation services: A national survey

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruption to healthcare services globally. We present the findings of a national survey of home mechanical ventilation (HMV) services in England and Wales. 30 HMV services (60%) responded. There was a significant reduction in outpatient services with 93% of services not offering routine face-to-face appointments, although most centres were able to offer emergency appointments for ventilation review and set-up. HMV inpatient capacity was reassigned, and HMV service staff re-deployed in the majority of centres (97%). The initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic left a service backlog of a median of 87 outpatient appointments [range 0-1500] and a median of 4 patients (range 0-100) awaiting NIV set-up.

Keywords: COVID-19; Non-invasive ventilation; Sleep medicine.