The UK’s coronavirus lockdown has impacted every area of healthcare, including cancer treatment, paediatrics, and cardiovascular care, resulting in excess deaths and delays to treatment, according to analysis.
Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures had already revealed on Monday that there were 25,000 excess deaths at private homes since the beginning of the year — with only nine per cent being as a result of coronavirus. Another piece of analysis predicted excess deaths would rise directly as a result of the government’s “Protect the NHS” message which deterred people from making medical appointments.
But it was the audit of several dozens of reports by health professionals, charities, and medical journals by the Daily Mail that revealed in full the staggering effect that the lockdown has had on non-COVID-19 patients.
The report noted a Lancet paper stating that during the three months of lockdown, organ transplants fell by two-thirds, resulting in the numbers of people dying on transplant waiting lists to nearly double.
Hospital chemotherapy attendance fell by 66 per cent in April, per a University College London study for the British Medical Journal analysed by the newspaper. Urgent referrals for early cancer diagnosis dropped by up to 89 per cent, according to the same study. Delays to treatments are unlikely to be caught up to for years, the Daily Mail says, revealing that delays could cause a 20 per cent rise on deaths of new cancer patients in England alone. – READ MORE
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