Many clinics in Germany were the last weeks in the emergency operation, scheduled operations had to be postponed due to the Corona-crisis. This also has the consequence that less and less people trust in the hospitals. Experts suspect damage, therefore a high collateral.
Doctors and hospitals to watch for in the Corona-crisis, a worrying Trend. Out of fear of infection is very much less patients with acute treatment needs in the clinics. “We note that diagnoses such as stroke, suspected heart attack or appendicitis have significantly declined,” says Siegfried Hasenbein, managing Director of the Bavarian hospital society in Munich. The same applies for cancer patients.
- All the news about the outbreak of Sars-CoV-2 read in the News-Ticker of FOCUS Online.
Fewer patients with urgent symptoms
Accurate statistics are not yet available, but physicians have to register the phenomenon in Germany: “We have very much less patient with urgency symptoms,” says lung cancer specialist Niels Reinmuth, chief of Thoracic Oncology at the Asklepios clinic in Gauting near Munich. “This is something that we’ll all be watching.” A main reason is probably fear: “The fear of being infected, is not apparently so great that many prefer to go to the doctor,” says a spokesman for the German hospital society in Berlin.
From a medical point of view, this is worrying. “Our concern is that we will get in the summer, many patients would be better come four months earlier,” says Reinmuth. Cardiologists have discussed whether Germany could be imminent, according to Corona, a wave of heart weakness, such as a Munich-based specialist reports. “You really have to urge: do not Stay with serious problems at home,” says the oncologist.
Reported corona virus cases in Germany (click on your state)
Heart attacks and strokes remain: the Virus of fear may not cause other deaths
In 2018, there were 210.000 heart attacks and about 300,000 strokes in Germany. A reduction in these Figures due to the Corona epidemic all of a sudden, no one believes in the medical community. Contributes to the phenomenon of the fact alleged, that many specialists in private practice have limited their practical operation, so that fewer patients will be transferred. “But it must be avoided that fear of the Virus causes other diseases and deaths,” says a spokesman for the hospital Association of North Rhine-Westphalia in Düsseldorf.
Less cancer treatments
However, not only heart attacks and strokes remain. British researchers have observed diagnoses in addition to a decline of cancer. In the next twelve months could die in the UK due to the Corona-lock downs, therefore, according to the researchers, around 20 percent more newly diagnosed cancer patients than usual in this period. To get this estimate, the scientists diseases due to the strongly decreased activities in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
The analysis of data from major cancer centres in the UK have shown that the number of urgent referrals with suspected cancer by General practitioners to 76 percent. The number of chemotherapy appointments fell by 60 percent in comparison to the levels before the pandemic.
