Published Thursday 23 April 2020 at 9:25
Our Director of Public Health and Wellbeing, Professor Dominic Harrison, has written another column for the Lancashire Telegraph: ‘NHS still open for business’.
Read it here:
There is growing evidence that the NHS in Lancashire is coping well with cases of Covid-19.
All hospitals currently have capacity to meet the public’s health needs.
East Lancashire hospitals are very busy but are reporting more Covid-19 patients recovering and returning home every week.
This success is because all of us have slowed down the rate of new cases requiring treatment by obeying the lockdown.
It’s also because hospitals, GPs and social care services have moved heaven and earth to respond to the Covid-19 challenges.
Despite this, the Office of National Statistics has just published new data which shows that we are seeing a sharp rise in deaths from ‘all causes’ from early April when compared to the same weeks in previous years.
Many of these excess deaths are not recorded as Covid-19 and many more than usual are occurring outside of hospitals in care homes and in people’s own homes.
A number of factors may be involved.
Many of these deaths may in fact be Covid-19 deaths but not recorded as such.
Some of the deaths may be from non-Covid-19 causes that would normally have been referred to hospital and quickly treated in normal circumstances – but are presenting too late due to pandemic priorities.
It could be that people are not contacting hospitals or GPs when they have serious symptoms as they know the NHS is already very busy, or they are worried about attending hospital in case they contract Covid-19.
We are urgently looking at all of these possibilities to try to manage and reduce their effects and to prevent all deaths which are avoidable.
A key message this week is therefore – please remember the NHS is still ‘open for business’.
If you need to use the NHS for reasons other than coronavirus, in the first instance call your GP or call 111, 24 hours a day.
Pregnant women should still, if needed, contact their midwives.
If you have serious symptoms and suspect your condition may be urgent or life-threatening, do use A&E or ring 999.
Do not be afraid to attend hospital as there are measures in place to avoid transmission of Covid-19 in hospital settings.
The system is coping well because of everything we have done together to contain the spread of the virus over the last few weeks.
It is our NHS.
If we need help, we should not stay away.
You can also find it on the Lancashire Telegraph website.