Effects of COVID‐19 Pandemic on Emergency Medical Services

Şan, İshak; Usul, Eren; Bekgöz, Burak; Korkut, Semih

INTRODUCTION: In this study, we aimed to analyse the changes that occurred after the COVID‐19 pandemic using the data of EMS of Ankara province. MATERIALS AND METHODS: EMS data for the same time interval (March 11‐April 24) in the last 3 years (2018, 2019 and 2020) were compared. RESULTS: While the number of calls increased by 90.9% during the pandemic period (from 2019 to 2020), the number of cases increased by 9.8%. Of all cases transported to hospital, 15.2% were suspected of and 2.9% were diagnosed with COVID‐19. In the pandemic period, case frequency decreased in the 0‐6 age group (−4.1%) and 7‐18 age group (‐39.9%) while the number of patients in the 19‐65 age group (12.9%) and 65+ age group (21.5%) increased. There was a statistically significant difference between pre‐pandemic and pandemic period in terms of rural area case frequency. During the pandemic period, case frequency of angina pectoris (−35.2%), myocardial infarction (−45%), acute abdomen (−23.8%) and cerebrovascular diseases (−2.9%) decreased contrary to pre‐pandemic period (2019). During the same period, symptoms of fever (+14.1%) and cough (+956.3%) increased. There was a statistically significant difference between pre‐pandemic and pandemic period in terms of forensic case frequency (P < .05). In addition, there was a statistically significant difference between these periods in terms of the frequency of patients who died at the scene. CONCLUSION: Although the use of ambulances has increased in the pandemic process, the use of EMS for time‐sensitive diseases has decreased.