Activity of Spanish gastroenterology units before and after the COVID-19 pandemic: an assessment using the EFIC_AD tool, developed by the Sociedad Española de Patología Digestiva (SEPD).

INTRODUCTION: the COVID-19 pandemic had a strong impact on the healthcare model. The Sociedad Española de Patología Digestiva (SEPD) offered gastroenterology care units (UAAD) an instrument (EFIC_AD) to record and analyze their efficacy and efficiency. Thus, the impact of the pandemic on the activity of UAAD was assessed.

METHODS: A descriptive study, based on the EFIC_AD registry for the period 2019-2021, of activity regarding admissions, clinic visits, and endoscopic as well as non-endoscopic tests, and endoscopy room performance.

RESULTS: data were collected from up to 42 hospitals (22 with ≥ 500 beds). Overall, activity during 2020 compared to 2019 decreased by 12.30 % for admissions and 40 % for pH-metries (16.70 % for new clinic visits; 14.34 % for referrals from primary care; 24.70 % for gastroscopies; 32.50 % for colonoscopies; 31.00 % for endoscopic ultrasounds; 18.20 % for endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCPs); 38.00 % for manometries; 23.60 % for abdominal ultrasounds; 36.17 % for liver transient elastographies [Fibroscan®]). The levels achieved during 2019 were not fully recovered during 2021 except for digestive motility studies, and virtually for endoscopy room performance rate (88.15 % in 2019; 67.77 % in 2020; 85.93 % in 2021).

CONCLUSIONS: during 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic led to a markedly decreased in specific activities at UAAD, which was not fully recovered in 2021 despite endoscopy room performance return to normal.