Page 36 - IJSA, Vol. 4, No 2, 2021

International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 4, No. 2, 2021
рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa

2) Furthermore, people might have been reluctant to visit pandemic. Hospital service protocols for COVID-19 and
the hospital because they were afraid of contagion at the non-COVID-19 patients must be strictly defined, so that
hospital; patients can receive medical care services according to
3) There was also adjustment in the hospital, such as their complaints. This is to prevent delays in diagnosis
social distancing rules and COVID-19 screening before and treatment delays that increase patient mortality.
surgeries, which subsequently affect patients who wanted
to undergo their surgeries or visit the outpatient Acknowledgments
department; The authors wish to thank to Dr. Akhmad Azmiardi for
4) The patients also began to seek alternatives in medical his suggestions on preparing the manuscript.
assistance such as utilizing telemedicine or private home Ethical Approval
care (Kumar & Dey, 2020). The study protocol was consistent with the ethical
The risk of delay in carrying out health control and guidelines of the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki as
treatment of cancer patients is estimated to be an increase reflected in a prior approval by the Institution’s Human
in the number of unresectable cancers as well as poor Research Committee.
survival outcomes due to cancellations of follow-ups and
postponements of surgeries (Stoss et al., 2021). Funding Source
The remarkable frequency of delays and disruptions in This research did not receive any outside funding or
health care, most of which were unintentionally related support.
to the reduction of the COVID-19 burden, posed a
significant risk to cancer care worldwide (Riera et al., References
2021). Establishing strict protocols and administrative Department of Health and Health Service Executive.
measures can help keep the COVID positivity rate low (2020). National Cancer Control Programme:
between patients and healthcare workers and provide Cancer services in Ireland in the context of Covid-
uninterrupted oncology services. Keeping in mind the 19. https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/5/cancer/
COVID pandemic and taking all necessary actions and Kumar, D., & Dey, T. (2020). Treatment delays in
experience from the ongoing oncology services, it is the oncology patients during COVID-19 pandemic: A
best plan to serve patients in the best possible way perspective. Journal of Global Health, 10(1).
(Sultania et al., 2020). In an analysis of patients with Article 010367.
cancer that short delay (3 months) had a significant https://doi.org/10.7189/jogh.10.010367
impact on patient survival in patients with aggressive Lotfi, M., Hamblin, M. R., & Rezaei, N. (2020).
cancer. Delay will also cause the tumor to become more COVID-19: Transmission, prevention, and
advanced, which means that not only is survival lower, potential therapeutic opportunities. Clinica
but the cancer will be more expensive to treat in terms of Chimica Acta, 508, 254–266.
both surgery and/or chemotherapy (Department of Health https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cca.2020.05.044
and Health Service Executive, 2020; Sud et al., 2020). Mulholland, R. H., Wood, R., Stagg, H. R.,
Based on our findings, the surgery numbers and Fischbacher, C., Villacampa, J., Simpson, C. R.,
outpatient visits gradually rose in July 2020, as the large- Vasileiou, E., McCowan, C., Stock, S. J.,
scale social restriction was slightly released. The “new Docherty, A. B., Ritchie, L. D., Agrawal, U.,
normal” term and health protocol for COVID-19 were Robertson, C., Murray, J. L., MacKenzie, F., &
applied as declared in the Health Minister decree of Sheikh, A. (2020). Impact of COVID-19 on
Republic Indonesia on June 2020. The hospital’s service accident and emergency attendances and
protocol for COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients emergency and planned hospital admissions in
were also getting clearer, so patients who might have Scotland: An interrupted time-series analysis.
delayed their medical attention started to get back to the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 113(11),
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treatments. https://doi.org/10.1177/0141076820962447
There are limitations in this study. First, this study was Reichardt, P., Bollmann, A., Hohenstein, S., Glass, B.,
only carried out in one hospital and might not reflect the Untch, M., Reichardt, A., Amrein, D., &
condition in other healthcare facilities. Second, we did Kuhlen, R. (2020). Decreased incidence of
not include and compare the emergency visits and oncology admissions in 75 Helios Hospitals in
surgeries of life-threatening cases, so future studies may Germany during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
focus on the aspect. Oncology Research and Treatment, 44(3), 71–74.
https://doi.org/10.1159/000512935
Conclusions Richards, M., Anderson, M., Carter, P., Ebert, B. L., &
There was a decline in surgical oncology activities, Mossialos, E. (2020). The impact of the COVID-
which culminated in a significant decrease in surgical 19 pandemic on cancer care. Nature Cancer, 1(6),
oncology patients in the Central Surgery Unit and the 565–567. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43018-020-
patient visit to the Moewardi Hospital outpatient 0074-y
oncology clinic during the COVID-19 pandemic. Strict Riera, R., Bagattini, Â. M., Pacheco, R. L.,
protocols and administrative measures are needed in Pachito, D. V., Roitberg, F., & Ilbawi, A. (2021).
oncology services given the conditions in the COVID-19 Delays and disruptions in cancer health care due
to COVID-19 pandemic: Systematic review. JCO
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