Hidden suffering of cancer victims: Patients with the disease or other serious conditions such as sepsis or a stroke are not seeking hospital help because they don’t want to burden NHS during coronavirus crisis
- Academy of Medical Royal Colleges concerned patients don’t want to be burden
- When patients finally seek advice the disease may have spread, be hard to treat
- Doctors have also seen a dramatic fall in patients going to A&E with strokes
- Public avoidance of the NHS also affecting kids; at least two dying from sepsis
- Ministers considering reminding public that the NHS is still open for business
Doctors’ leaders have warned of the ‘collateral damage’ of coronavirus amid fears patients are avoiding help for cancer, strokes and sepsis.
The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges is ‘very concerned’ that patients are shunning the NHS because they either don’t want to be a burden or they are worried about catching the virus.
The organisation, which represents 23 colleges, is particularly concerned about the implications for cancer, with figures showing a sharp fall in patients seeing their GP with symptoms.
Provisional data for last month shows the number of patients being referred by family doctors on the urgent ‘two-week wait’ pathway to a hospital consultant was 50 per cent lower than in February.
Doctors have also seen a dramatic fall in patients going to A&E with strokes
Officials believe this is because patients with lumps in their breasts, blood in their urine or other ‘red flag’ symptoms are putting off seeing a GP until the outbreak is over. One senior NHS director has privately described this public avoidance of hospitals and GP surgeries as the virus’s ‘collateral damage’.
He is worried that when patients eventually seek advice for their cancer symptoms in one or two months’ time the disease may have spread and be harder to treat.
Many surgeries are carrying out appointments over the phone or via online video call.
Doctors have also seen a dramatic fall in patients going to A&E with strokes. Dr David Hargroves, a consultant stroke physician at East Kent University Hospitals, said his own emergency department had seen a 50 per cent drop in patients admitted for strokes in the past three weeks.
He said: ‘I hope we’re not going to see this tidal wave of people who sat at home for days or weeks with their strokes. Stroke disease is a medical emergency with a mortality rate of 14 per cent in the first 30 days and it goes up to 35 per cent within the first year.’
Ministers are considering releasing a statement this weekend reminding the public that the NHS is still open for business if they are seriously ill
Public avoidance of the NHS is also affecting children, with at least two under-18s dying from sepsis in the last month after going to A&E too late. Professor Carrie MacEwen, chairman of The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, said: ‘We are very concerned that patients may not be accessing the NHS for care because they either don’t want to be a burden or because they are fearful about catching the virus.’
Ministers are considering releasing a statement this weekend reminding the public that the NHS is still open for business if they are seriously ill.
The numbers of patients going to A&E in the week to April 2 was a third lower than the same week last year.
Professor Stephen Powis, NHS England’s national medical director, said: ‘If you have any emergency condition, you should be seeking emergency services just as you always have done.’
It came as the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned that elderly patients and those from poorer households will be worse affected by the consequences of the pandemic.
The think-tank said these groups would suffer most from the cancellation of non-urgent operations and the economic downturn.