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A government campaign has been launched to encourage people who are seriously ill with non-coronavirus conditions, such as heart attacks, to seek help amid concerns that some are avoiding hospitals.
The campaign, which will launch next week, aims to encourage people to use vital services such as cancer screenings and care, maternity appointments and mental health support, as they normally would.
NHS Executive Director Sir Simon Stevens said delays in receiving treatment posed a long-term risk to people’s health.
He emphasized that the NHS was still there for non-coronavirus patients who needed urgent and emergency services for stroke, heart attack, and other often fatal conditions.
While NHS staff have worked hard to establish measures that allow people to access care safely, such as dividing services into coronaviruses and non-coronaviruses, care in A&E departments will be 1m lower in April than last.
In the West Midlands, Toby Lewis, executive director of the Sandwell and West Midlands NHS Trust, said that as of the beginning of the month, some 300 people with acute and severe conditions had refused to be transferred to the hospital.
“These are people with severe and acute conditions who were sent an ambulance, but they refused to go to the hospital and a doctor left very concerned for that person,” said Lewis.
“In general, attendance at A&E departments and general practitioners is very low among these people and, in general, they decline care for fear of being in a hospital. People also don’t want to upset the NHS because they think medical professionals are busy with other things; Both are understandable, but this is the wrong way, and we want people to know that the NHS is open for business. You’re not alone.”
The campaign will include digital ads, posters and social media with NHS staff to convince people to contact their GP or 111 service if they have urgent care needs, or 999 in emergencies, and to attend the hospital. if they are told they should.
Below is how other areas of the health service have been affected by the coronavirus.
Cancer
According to Cancer Research UK, the number of urgent referrals by GPs for people with suspected cancer fell by 75% during the pandemic.
Screening services have been formally paused in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and are de facto paused in England as invitations are not sent from screening centers.
An NHS executive director was concerned to see referrals from GPs for the two-week target response cancer diagnosis drop from 500 a week to 105, NHS providers reported.
Heart attacks and strokes
The latest data from Public Health England, from April 13 to 19, shows that the number of people who went to the emergency departments in England with symptoms of a possible heart attack decreased by around 40% in the figures observed in early March.
NHS England is collecting figures on stroke patients falling. Tony Rudd, clinical director of the National Stroke Audit, said: “Almost everywhere a fairly dramatic drop has been seen in patients hospitalized for acute stroke, although it may be rebounding a bit more last week.”
Ambulance waiting times
Response time for the most common ambulance calls increased 45% in March nationwide and almost tripled in London, data from the NHS England show. The national average response time for a category two call, those classified as emergency but not immediately life threatening, increased to 32 minutes and 6 seconds against an 18-minute target.
Non-urgent operations
Tens of thousands of non-urgent surgeries have been canceled to free up space for coronavirus patients, and the wards have been converted to intensive care units.
Several acute-confidence CEOs told the Health Service Journal that they are interested in resuming more planned operations, as ministers and scientists say the peak of new Covid-19 cases may have passed. Some trusted leaders said they believed that routine elective surgery could be restarted as early as next week.
Mental health
Children’s mental health services in England recorded a sharp drop in referrals. “There is no general number [on referrals], but we are having discussions about this. I can tell what is happening in my area, but I asked all university executives what is happening across the country. We met last week, “said Bernadka Dubicka, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists School of Children and Adolescents.
In adult services, Billy Boland, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Faculty of General Adult Psychiatry, said anecdotal comments suggested that general practitioners were not referring as many people to mental health services. He said: “Many mental health services have changed the way they work, so there are more remote consultations.”
