FILE – In this May 27, 2020 file photo, medical personnel work in the NYC Health + Hospitals Metropolitan emergency department in New York. (AP Photo / John Minchillo, File)
OAN press room
UPDATED 11:06 AM PT – Monday July 13, 2020
As more people crowd hospitals seeking coronavirus treatment, medical officials warn of a new health crisis. Americans are reportedly delaying seeking medical help for pre-existing injuries and medical conditions for fear of being exposed to COVID-19.
At the start of the pandemic in March, many states stopped all nonessential procedures and doctor visits to focus attention on fighting the virus.
“One of the things we have noticed during the pandemic is that because we were closed for a period of time, some of the medical services really were only those that were immediately important, urgent,” said Dr. Debra Patt, an oncologist. . “And so, people weren’t screened … breast cancer screening rates, screening mammography, were reduced by 90 percent.”
While those doctor visits resumed, hospitals continue to care for fewer patients without coronavirus. A Reuters report found that emergency department use decreased by 40 percent during the first two and a half months of the pandemic.
“We are definitely seeing patients in the emergency room who have delayed their care, delayed their treatment or delayed detection,” said Dr. Lynn Jeffers, medical director of St. John’s Regional Medical Center.
During that same time, patients seeking care for heart attacks decreased by 23 percent, while stroke patients decreased by 20 percent. The pandemic has also been costly in cancer patients who are considered to be at extremely high risk of experiencing coronavirus complications.
“Honestly, on entering, I was more nervous about the coronavirus than about my cancer surgery,” said Helen Knost, a breast cancer patient. “I have full faith in my surgeon, she is amazing, but getting in there with all the masks on and, you know, controlling yourself with the temperature and all of that is much scarier than cancer.”
FILE: In this May 27, 2020 file photo, a medical worker wearing personal protective equipment cleans the stretchers in the admission area of the NYC Health + Hospitals Metropolitan emergency department in New York. As the coronavirus spirals out of control in other parts of the U.S., New York provides an example after taming the nation’s deadliest outbreak this spring, but it’s also trying to prepare in case another surge occurs. (AP Photo / John Minchillo, File)
Doctors have ensured, however, that hospitals are taking every precaution to keep patients safe.
“Regarding the care of non-COVID patients in our hospital, we have taken many steps just to try to keep people separate,” said Dr. Jeffers. “… We also look at when we have elective surgeries where we ask them to come and control themselves in a certain way, and to unload on the sidewalk instead of receiving visits.”
Doctors urge people to see their primary care doctor if they think something is wrong and not to avoid seeking help for fear of contracting COVID-19.
