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COVID-19 affected the epidemiology of other infectious diseases and how they were managed. Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the most common infections treated in the community in England. We investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on UTI primary care consultations and outcomes in female patients.

We analysed General Practice (GP) consultation and hospital admission records using the Whole Systems Integrated Care (WSIC) data in North West London between 2016 and 2021. We quantified the changes in UTI GP consultation rates using time series analysis before and during the pandemic. We assessed the outcomes of UTI, measured by subsequent bacteraemia and sepsis within 60 days, for consultations delivered face-to-face or remotely, with or without diagnostic tests recommended by the national guidelines, and with or without antibiotic treatment. Between January 2016 and December 2021, we identified 375,859 UTI episodes in 233,450 female patients. Before the COVID-19 pandemic (January 2016 – February 2020), the UTI GP consultation rate stayed level at 522.8 cases per 100,000 population per month, with a seasonal pattern of peaking in October. Since COVID-19, (March 2020 – December 2021), monthly UTI GP consultations declined when COVID-19 cases surged and rose when COVID-19 case fell. During the pandemic, the UTI consultations delivered face-to-face reduced from 72.0% to 29.4%, the UTI consultations with appropriate diagnostic tests, including urine culture and urinalysis, reduced from 17.3% to 10.4%, and the UTI cases treated with antibiotics reduced …