Try and get an appointment with your G.P.
Try and get an appointment with your G.P.
That explains it pretty much.
Charles Levinson knows fine well.
From personal experience:Are people really struggling to get emergency GP appointments?
I know we can only confidently report our own circumstances but where I am there are no shortages of appointments if help is needed.
Is it because people have been locked down in their homes, rather than dying when out and about as they would be pre-pandemic?
I suspect its exactly this. If we have more hours at home there will be more deaths at home.Is it because people have been locked down in their homes, rather than dying when out and about as they would be pre-pandemic?
There's a bit of discussion (without definitive conclusions) in the link below. It uses Scotland as an example of how their major causes of deaths from cancer, heart disease and strokes increased by 1% in 2020, but deaths at home for these causes increased by 36%. But it does raise the question not covered by statistics: did people die in fear of getting NHS support in their final days or did they receive loving care from their friends and relatives.A confluence of factors, largely covid related, incuding:
- difficulty in contacting GPs
- difficulty in arranging face-to-face consultations
- increased hesitancy in patients re calling GP (they're very busy, don't want to bother them etc)
- fear of catching covid from GP and hospital visits
- increased waiting lists for hospital appointments as resources shifted to covid
All of the above delay diagnosis and treatment and therefore increase mortality. The figures will include people who, previously, would have been diagnosed and cured. They also include people who would have still died, but in hospital, rather than at home.
On a slightly more positive note, possibly related to Bear66's post above, WFH has allowed more people to receive palliative care, support etc from friends and relatives in home surroundings, obviating the need for hospitalisation.