Some changes necessitated by COVID-19 should be retained after the pandemic, argues Alastair Whitington, Consultant Editor for Specialised Medicine
In March 2020, in response to the pandemic, most acute hospitals became COVID-19 treatment centres. To minimise contact with non-COVID patients, many secondary care services all but ceased to function, and those that did continue had to radically change care pathways to minimise footfall in hospital in order to protect staff and patients and reduce transmission of the disease. Efforts to reduce patient contact were assisted when attendances at hospital plummeted as the public became fearful of healthcare environments and reluctant to add to the burden on the NHS. The consequence was a significant reduction in the number of people referred or presenting to hospitals despite having symptoms of life-threatening conditions such as acute coronary syndromes,1 stroke,2 and cancer.3 In the case of cancer alone, this is expected to translate into a substantial increase in preventable deaths.4