The Hidden Costs of COVID-19 examined the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic on NHS waiting times and treatments for non-COVID conditions and delays in elective surgeries. The BBC Wales programme, aired on Monday evening (9th November 2020), featured expert interviews from the fields of cancer, mental health, public health and government policy.
The programme-makers interviewed Swansea University’s Professor Ronan Lyons, Director of SAIL Databank, who summarised the insights gleaned from the rich health data in SAIL from the first peak of the virus.
“The scale of the changes – we’ve never seen anything like it.”
“There have been signs it has been recovering, but what we’re worried about now, as the virus increases, is that it will again have a massive knock-on effect on hospitals and their ability to provide those services.”
Professor Ronan Lyons
Containing billions of person-based records, SAIL Databank is a rich and trusted population data resource. It improves lives by providing researchers with secure, linkable and anonymised data that can be accessed and analysed from anywhere in the world.
This wealth of information within SAIL can be used to monitor the impact of a very wide range of exposures and outcomes on the entire population using robustly de-identified data. SAIL can monitor the development and spread of diseases, and evaluate the impact of exposures and the effects of treatments on outcomes.
SAIL Databank has been integral to the ‘One Wales’ response to coronavirus; a multi-agency team of academic, health, administration and government bodies to react quickly and effectively to COVID-19 developments. SAIL’s role in helping to inform and provide intelligence to the Welsh Government’s Technical Advisory Group, subsequently feeding into the UK’s SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies).
> Read more here – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-54808693