TY - JOUR T1 - Psychological distress during the acceleration phase of the COVID-19 pandemic: a survey of doctors practising in emergency medicine, anaesthesia and intensive care medicine in the UK and Ireland JF - Emergency Medicine Journal JO - Emerg Med J DO - 10.1136/emermed-2020-210438 SP - emermed-2020-210438 AU - Tom Roberts AU - Jo Daniels AU - William Hulme AU - Robert Hirst AU - Daniel Horner AU - Mark D Lyttle AU - Katie Samuel AU - Blair Graham AU - Charlie Reynard AU - Michael Barrett AU - James Foley AU - John Cronin AU - Etimbuk Umana AU - Joao Vinagre AU - Edward Carlton A2 - , Y1 - 2021/04/07 UR - http://emj.bmj.com/content/early/2021/04/07/emermed-2020-210438.abstract N2 - Objective To quantify psychological distress experienced by emergency, anaesthetic and intensive care doctors during the acceleration phase of COVID-19 in the UK and Ireland.Methods Initial cross-sectional electronic survey distributed during acceleration phase of the first pandemic wave of COVID-19 in the UK and Ireland (UK: 18 March 2020–26 March 2020 and Ireland: 25 March 2020–2 April 2020). Surveys were distributed via established specialty research networks, within a three-part longitudinal study. Participants were doctors working in emergency, anaesthetic and intensive medicine during the first pandemic wave of COVID-19 in acute hospitals across the UK and Ireland. Primary outcome measures were the General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12). Additional questions examined personal and professional characteristics, experiences of COVID-19 to date, risk to self and others and self-reported perceptions of health and well-being.Results 5440 responses were obtained, 54.3% (n=2955) from emergency medicine and 36.9% (n=2005) from anaesthetics. All levels of doctor seniority were represented. For the primary outcome of GHQ-12 score, 44.2% (n=2405) of respondents scored >3, meeting the criteria for psychological distress. 57.3% (n=3045) had never previously provided clinical care during an infectious disease outbreak but over half of respondents felt somewhat prepared (48.6%, n=2653) or very prepared (7.6%, n=416) to provide clinical care to patients with COVID-19. However, 81.1% (n=4414) either agreed (31.1%, n=2709) or strongly agreed (31.1%, n=1705) that their personal health was at risk due to their clinical role.Conclusions Findings indicate that during the acceleration phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, almost half of frontline doctors working in acute care reported psychological distress as measured by the GHQ-12. Findings from this study should inform strategies to optimise preparedness and explore modifiable factors associated with increased psychological distress in the short and long term.Trial registration number ISRCTN10666798.Data may be obtained from a third party and are not publicly available. Data are available on request to chief investigator. All reasonable requests will be considered and provided as deidentified data. ER -