Covid 19 versus other illnesses

[102 fan]

BBC News - Coronavirus: 106 cancer procedures cancelled https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-54647700

'The trust confirmed to the BBC that a rise in Covid-19 admissions is placing pressure on hospitals. It has led to the trust taking the "extremely difficult decision" to cancel surgeries in order to expand their Covid-19 ICU teams.'

A worrying time to have any illness that isn't Covid in Belfast. So much for the Hippocratic oath.

 

[brad465]

I think this post from kristiang85 recently posted in the Media Coverage thread would be useful if recalled here:

Well it was one of the ones they talked about on BBC that I referred to in my comment last night.

The Daily Mail has done a big piece too on this: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...rable-patients-laid-bare.html#article-8856959 It has collected data from various sources to work out the collatoral damage.

To summarise (see the article for sources, if you can cope with the horrid formatting of the DM site):
- 26.7m fewer GP appointments between March and August in England and Wales compared to 2019
- 25k+ more people have died at home in England and Wales, 43.8% more than normal (averaging an extra 100 people a day).
- Urgent cancer referrals in England fell by 350,000 between April and August (89% down)
- Between 45-66% less chemotherapy procedures performed in April alone
- Within a year 6,270 extra English cancer patients will have died due to lack of treatment in the pandemic
- There were 12% of endoscopies for bowel cancer during lockdown compared to normal (5% at one point), potentiallyb between 650-2,250 excess bowel cancer deaths.
- 2,000 excess deaths estimated for breast, lung and oesophagael cancer.
- There was an 8% increase in deaths from heart attacks and strokes (2,100 excess deaths). Number of people treated for strokes fell by 45%.
- A&E visits fell by 50% in lockdown.
- Average number of organ transplants per day fell from 11.6 to 3.1 during lockdown; those who died whilst waiting for a transplant increased to 87 in lockdown from 47 in the same period last year.
- Waiting list for orthopaedic operations have risen by more than a third to 700,000
- More than 600,000 are waiting for eye procedures (cataracts, etc.)
- 50,000 children in England had scheduled operations cancelled. 9 cases confirmed of children dying due to treatment being delayed.
- Depression rates have doubled from 1 in 10 to 1 in 5 people.
- 18% adults had suicidal thoughts in first month of lockdown.
- NSPCC emergency hotline went gfrom an average of 5,593 a week befroe lockdown to 8,287 in May.
- Calls to domestic abuse charity refuge were up 50% in April over the average.

Even if half of this is true, it makes your eyes water.

Moderator note: This is already under discussion elsewhere, so we've locked the thread