The June 2021 edition of the Journal of Neurology reports on a global survey carried out on disruption of neurological services during the COVID19 pandemic.

A cross-sectional study was carried out in which 34 international neurological associations were asked to distribute the survey to national associations.

54 completed surveys came from 43 countries covering all the 6 WHO regions. Overall, neurological services disruption was reported as mild by 26%, moderate by 30%, complete by 13% of associations. The most affected services were cross-sectoral neurological services (57%) and neurorehabilitation (56%). The second wave of the pandemic, however, was associated with the improvement of service provision for diagnostics services (44%) and for neurorehabilitation (41%). Governmental directives were the major cause of services' disruption (56%). Mitigation strategies were mostly established through telemedicine (48%). Almost half of respondents reported a significant impact on neurological research (48%) and educational activities (60%). Most associations (67%) were not involved in decision making for neurological patients' issues by their national government.

The COVID-19 pandemic affects neurological services and raises the universal need for the development of neurological health care at the policy, systems and services levels. A global national plan on mitigation strategies for disruption of neurological services during pandemic situations should be established and neurological scientific and patients associations should get involved in decision making.

Full article reference:

Chahnez Charfi Triki et al (2021) Global survey on disruption and mitigation of neurological services during COVID19: the perspective of global international neurological patients and scientific associations. Journal of Neurology (2021) June 11; 1-13