COVID-19 Triage — Widening Health Inequalities?

By Blanca Sanz-Magallón.

There have been many concerns regarding the discriminatory effects of triage frameworks. Are these well-founded?

Is triage discriminatory?

 

Where is the problem ?

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National Institute of Health (NICE) guidelines, which use age, frailty, and co-morbidities, and underlying health conditions to assess all cases.

1. Selection should depend on demand for resources

2. Good triage needs to be clear

3. Good triage does not rely on ‘stereotypes’

Not all guidelines are made ‘unequal’

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Maryland ICU triage guidelines, which, in the first instance, use a SOFA score to assess short-term prognosis, followed by long-term survival and age.

One step forward