Optimising the management of malignant melanoma during COVID-19

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to present challenges for healthcare systems. This has resulted in the pragmatic restructuring of plastic surgery units worldwide1. This includes changes to leadership, staffing capabilities, redeployment and upskilling, adjustments to elective activity, and transformed patient pathways. In March 2020, all non-urgent elective surgery was cancelled across the UK and Ireland indefinitely2. It is estimated that over 28 million elective surgical procedures have been cancelled worldwide during the peak of the pandemic in both public and private practice. During this period, many units reported a significant fall in urgent melanoma referrals, which may lead to patients presenting with advanced disease, requiring more extensive surgery, and obtaining inferior long-term outcomes. The authors of this paper sought to characterise their own experience of invasive and non-invasive melanoma during the COVID-19 pandemic, with insights into our units restructuring to manage the disease continually and effectively.