Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Orthopaedic Practice: the COVid-19 Emergency/Elective Related Trauma (COVERT) Collaborative

In response to the health crisis, it is the responsibility of clinicians to audit and collaborate in order to observe the impact of the pandemic on clinical practice. With the restructure of the health infrastructure, there is likely to be changes to the nature of acute referrals to Trauma and Orthopaedics, operative and anaesthetic casemix, polytrauma and open fractures as well as the role of technology to reduce viral transmission. Patient safety ought to be prioritised at all times but a national narrative is required to equip healthcare services to counter the pandemic at various time intervals post-social distancing and lockdown at 1.5, 3, 6, 12, 18 and 24 months. This will act as an audit to compare and contrast if the reconfiguration of healthcare services is abiding by the governmental, DoH, NHS, WHO, RCS and BOA (BOAST) policies and guidelines.