Non-COVID-19 NHS care during the pandemic, The Health Foundation

Key points Coronavirus (COVID-19) has had a major indirect impact on NHS services in England, from primary care to hospital treatment, resulting in disrupted care for tens of thousands of patients. While general practice has remained open throughout the pandemic, many appointments have been switched to remote methods, such as via telephone, to keep patients and staff safe. The overall number of appointments dropped sharply from April 2020 compared with the previous year, but has since recovered. In October, there were 2 million fewer overall appointments than in October 2019, but there were still 7 million fewer face-to-face appointments than in the same month in 2019. There were large falls in the numbers of people attending A&E at the beginning of the pandemic, with visits to major emergency departments down by 48% in April 2020 compared with the same month in 2019. This was caused by a combination of reductions in injuries during lockdown, but also public reluctance to use emergency services when infection rates were high. The volume of A&E attendances rose steadily until September, but have since fallen, as COVID-19 infections began to rise again, suggesting that high infection rates are still a deterrent. There have been major disruptions to planned hospital treatment. Between January and September 2020 there were 4 million fewer referrals to outpatients than in the same period in 2019. There was a 60% fall in the numbers of people referred by their GP for suspect...
Source: Current Awareness Service for Health (CASH) - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news