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Papers of the Week


2020 May 14


Anaesthesia

COVID-19 disease and access to labour epidural analgesia in NHS hospitals.

Authors

Abstract

Even before COVID-19 had a significant impact on public health in the UK, there were media reports that access to epidural analgesia for women during labour was being restricted in some NHS hospitals [1]. To determine whether the crisis management of COVID-19 in NHS hospitals was having an adverse effect on the availability of labour epidural analgesia, the Obstetric Anaesthetists' Association (OAA) surveyed consultant anaesthetists who are service leads for obstetric anaesthesia in their hospital. The link to an online survey was posted on a WhatsApp group, created for consultant service leads for obstetric anaesthesia to share information about COVID-19 disease, and was also emailed to all 209 consultants who the OAA believed to be service leads.