Hospital cases plummet due to pandemic
St John’s Hospital in West Lothian had over 4000 fewer emergency admissions in the first six months of 2020 than the same period last year.
The data was uncovered by a Freedom of Information (FoI) request sent by the MSP Neil Findlay to NHS Lothian asking for information relating to admissions to the hospital in Livingston.
Specifically, he asked to compare patients admitted from the years 2018 and 2019, between the months of January to July, to the figures for this year.
In 2018, there were 16,994 admissions in the first six months of the year and in 2019, 17,969 patients were admitted.
But in the same period in 2020 only 13,716 people were brought into the hospital.
Significantly, surgical admissions and medical assessments have had the biggest decrease, which means fewer operations.
In 2018 there were 4724 surgical admissions, in 2019, 4647 came to the hospital for surgery and by 2020 there were just 2938 people admitted to the hospital for surgical operations.
Jacquie Campbell, chief officer, Acute Services, NHS Lothian, said:“In line with other hospital sites across Scotland, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic St John’s Hospital saw a reduction in emergency admissions during April to June. In addition as part of our initial Covid-19 response, a number of services, including non-urgent elective surgery were postponed.
“With fewer elective operations taking place during the time period, the number of admissions subsequently reduced.”
Labour list MSP for Lothian, Neil Findlay, said: “These figures show that many people who would normally receive care and treatment in hospital have not received that treatment. I fear that many ill and needy people may be suffering at home.
“I would encourage everyone to continue to contact their GP should they have any concerns at all about their health and well being.”
Conservative list MSP for Lothian, Miles Briggs, added:“The decrease in admissions to St John’s Hospital in the first half of this year is very concerning, with less people attending hospital due to Covid-19.
“Surgi cal admissions and medical assessments were amongst the biggest drop in admissions, which suggests many people have had their operations delayed.
“SNP ministers must put a recovery plan in place, as a matter of urgency, to deal with the backlog of operations which has arisen due to operations being postponed.
“It is vital that local services at St John’s are protected and I will continue to fight for resources to be made available to keep health services local.”
Almond Valley MSP Angela Constance said: “Our NHS remains on an emergency footing to deal with the pandemic.
“To ensure the NHS has the capacity to cope some services have been postponed.
“However, plans are in pace to remobilise services in a safe way, therefore the number of hospital admissions, operations and treatments will begin to increase again.
“Nonetheless, this has been a difficult and distressing time for those waiting for treatment.
“It is important to remember that despite the pandemic our NHS remains open and it is imperative that people seek advice and do not ignore early warning signs of serious conditions.”