300 fewer people died during Covid lockdown

Three hundred fewer people died during the Covid-19 lockdown compared to recent years, even as thousands of patient appointments were cancelled and GPs closed their doors to all but the most urgent cases.

The Ministry of Health has published a report examining the impact of Covid-19 on hospital and general practice activity, which was reduced to all but the most essential services during lockdown to contain the virus, and how any changes effected patient health.

It showed a drastic reduction in people in hospital, with 40,000 fewer people discharged from hospital in April, the peak of the lockdown. Planned care in hospitals halved in April and the data shows this reduction, as well as a reduction in emergency care, disproportionately effected Ma¯ori and Pacific people.

The number of people waiting more than four months for medical treatment also grew during April and, again, Ma¯ori and Pacific people were disproportionately effected by additional delays.

After a rush of people attending their GP practice before level 4 was imposed on March 26, appointments with GPs and community nurses also dropped precipitously during lockdown.

However, despite this disruption, the report said early evidence showed the mortality rate over lockdown was lower than in any of the previous five years, with 300 fewer deaths.

And despite the reduction in access to care, patents did not report an increase in health problems going untreated over lockdown.

The report did not take into account any pre-existing unmet need, or any projected increase in need over time outside of lockdown. It also did not offer explanation for why fewer people had died than expected.

But Dr Bryan Betty, medical director of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said fewer respiratory illnesses and the unprecedented ‘‘zero-flu season’’ played a major role.

The flu season normally kills close to 500 people a year. Experts have said it is possible not a single person died of flu in New Zealand in 2020.

‘‘The probable reason is that there was much less respiratory illness this year,’’ he said.