Impact of COVID-19 on stoma care: the experience of one team in Oxford

COVID-19 has caused significant disruption to the delivery of patient care across the globe (Ren et al, 2020; Sud et al, 2020; Wexner et al, 2020). To the authors' knowledge, the impact of COVID-19 on the management of patients with stomas during the pandemic and in the recovery phase has not been described in detail before in the literature. In this article, we discuss our experiences at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, our stoma nursing team covered daily clinics at the John Radcliffe Hospital (for emergency surgical patients) and the Churchill Hospital (for elective patients). The team also covered the Horton Hospital (a district general hospital with no acute surgical admissions) twice weekly, and a clinic each month in the neighbouring towns of Abingdon and Witney.

In February 2020, there were 82 face-to-face clinic appointments and 31 home visits performed. There were also six telemedicine appointments for stoma patients, and 10 telemedicine appointments for ileoanal pouch patients. Table 1 summarises the number of patients who have had face-to-face specific stoma/pouch clinic appointments or telemedicine appointments between February and July 2020.