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A&E departments under pressure as non-Covid patients flood back
The Society for Acute Medicine warned the influx of urgent patients threatens to derail the ambition to get routine treatments back on track
4 April 2021 • 3:23pm
Accident and Emergency departments faced their busiest period in two years last week, as non-Covid patients began to flood back into hospitals, according to senior medics.
The Society for Acute Medicine (SAM) is warning of “red flags” in hospitals, with the influx of urgent patients threatening to derail the government’s ambition to get routine treatments, such as hip and knee procedures, back on track.
Experts warned the lost referrals could lead to thousands of delayed diagnoses and avoidable deaths.
NHS England data shows the number of patients urgently referred for the cancer fell by 28 per cent between April 2020 and January of this year - about 52,000 fewer.
The charity Prostate Cancer UK estimates at least 8,600 fewer men started treatment for prostate cancer in that time, down around a third on 2019.
It said the drop in referrals is largely attributed to fewer men seeing their GP during this time. Urgent cancer referrals are made when family doctors strongly suspect a patient may have the disease.
For example, separate NHS Digital figures show there have been 35million GP appointments over the course of the pandemic.
NHS England data show that more people than ever are waiting for operations or waiting too long for cancer appointments as the health service scrambles to work through its backlog.