• Owen Jefferies, David Kealey, Susan Yoong, Ruth Houston, and Caoimhe Tennyson.
• Major Trauma Department, Royal Victoria Hospital.
• Ulster Med J. 2021 Jan 1; 90 (1): 13-15.

IntroductionBased in Belfast, the Royal Victoria Hospital is the only Major Trauma Centre in Northern Ireland. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on 23rd March 2020, Northern Ireland was placed into 'lockdown' with the majority of the population advised to "stay at home". The objective of this paper is to identify what effect the lockdown restrictions had on the workload of the Major Trauma Service at the Royal Victoria Hospital.MethodPatients were identified at the orthopaedic trauma meetings and from direct referral to the Major Trauma Service (MTS). Patients admitted and seen by the MTS from 23/03/20, the day lockdown was announced, to 29/05/20, when restrictions were partially lifted, were included in the analysis. Admissions data from this time period was then compared to admissions data from the same period in 2019 (23/03/19 - 29/05/19).ResultsWhen comparing pre-lockdown and lockdown groups there was an overall decrease of 26% in admissions to the MTS (n=57 vs n=42). Road Traffic Accidents were reduced by 53% (n=31 vs n=15) and falls from >2m were reduced by 29% (n=21 vs n=15).ConclusionOverall the number of admissions to the major trauma service was reduced during the lockdown period. A significant proportion of the reduction may be a result of social restrictions that reduced volume of traffic on Northern Irelands roads. Further study of future lockdowns and including admissions data of other MTCs in the UK would allow us to draw more robust conclusions.Copyright © 2021 Ulster Medical Society.

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