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Heart patients ‘fearful’ of seeking medical help amid COVID crisis
Data analysis by researchers at the University of Leeds is revealing a second sharp drop in the number of people admitted to hospital in England with acute heart failure or a heart attack.
The decline may be linked to patients being reluctant to go to hospital out of a fear of contracting COVID-19.
“…if patients delay or avoid treatment, they will suffer life-limiting complications or they will die.”
Patient numbers declined sharply during the first wave of the pandemic and although they did rebound, they never returned to the levels seen before the pandemic. They began to fall sharply again as the numbers of COVID-19 infections began to surge ahead of the second lockdown in early November 2020.
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IMAGE: Time series graph showing daily hospital admissions from sample hospitals in England for patients with heart attack and acute heart failure. The graph also shows key dates in the COVID-19. view more
Credit: University of Leeds
Data analysis is revealing a second sharp drop in the number of people admitted to hospital in England with acute heart failure or a heart attack.
The decline began in October as the numbers of COVID-19 infections began to surge ahead of the second lockdown, which came into force in early November.
The findings, from a research group led by the University of Leeds, have been revealed in a letter to the