Non-virus patients ‘dying to avoid hospital’

MORE ill people could be dying by avoiding hospitals during the pandemic than are being killed by coronavirus, figures suggest as senior medics urged them to keep using the NHS.

Stephen Powis, the NHS England national medical director, said those with stroke and heart attack symptoms and pregnant women worried about their babies should seek emergency care.

Dr Gregor Smith, the Scottish interim chief medical officer, said “clinicians across the country” had told him that the NHS was “eerily quiet” for illnesses apart from Covid-19. He urged people with “urgent symptoms” to seek help even during the crisis.

His comments came as 1,741 deaths were recorded in Scotland last week, 643 more than the average for the same week in the previous five years.

The National Records of Scotland figures showed coronavirus accounted for only 282 of the surge, leaving 361 deaths not linked to the disease.

Nicola Sturgeon said a backlog in reporting accounted for some of the latter figure, but there was “another element” unrelated to this or the virus.

At Downing Street yesterday, Mr Powis said that while the NHS was working “night and day to surge capacity” to manage the virus, it was also there for patients with stroke or heart attack symptoms, adding: “If you have any emergency condition whether it’s a sick child ... a mother in pregnancy worried about movements of the baby, you should be seeking emergency services just as you always have done.”

It comes after Cancer Research UK said it had received calls from patients told that cancer treatment was on offer but it was up to them whether or not they underwent further care.