Impact of Covid-19 Outbreak Pandemic on the Radiotherapy Practice: A Survey Study of Indian States

Background & objectives: Immunocompromised cancer patients are venerable for the infection and so the professionals involved in radiotherapy too. The objective of this online survey was to assess the impact of Covid-19 on radiotherapy practices, safety measures taken by the radiotherapy professionals during the peak of Covid-19 infection in India. Methods: Structured questionnaire was shared online to assess the awareness and knowledge pertaining to safety of protective items, importance and method of screening, QA of the instruments, safety measures taken in radiotherapy department, methods of the sanitization, use of mask and methods of Covid-19 waste managements. Results: Survey results indicated that almost all participants (97.4%) were aware of the severity of Covid-19 virus. In safety at the individual level, 51.3% of the staff reported changing hand gloves before handling new patients and 41% did not follow the same. In this survey, regarding working days (in a week), employees were working for six days in 56.4% centres, 28.2 % centres for three days of a week and remaining 15.4% centres were operational with five days of week. At 38.5% centres, radiotherapy personals found infected with the virus however large number of centres (53.8%) revealed that so far, no radiotherapy professionals got infected. Interpretation & conclusions: The current survey comprised 31 questions pertaining to various aspects of radiotherapy practices and radiotherapy professional safety from Covid infections and changes followed due to Covid-19 epidemic. The individual professional’s inputs could help to deal with such epidemic in even better way.