AFP, published on Wednesday April 22, 2020 at 11:10 am
Admissions to the emergency services of Paris Hospitals have been halved since the start of confinement, said Wednesday the AP-HP, which is worried about a waiver of care for serious pathologies, in particular the Cancer.
“Since mid-March 2020, emergency room visits have fallen by 45% for adults and 70% for children compared to last year at the same period,” details in its press release the Public Assistance – Hospitals of Paris, the leading French hospital group with 39 establishments.
“This decrease can be explained by lifestyle changes (drop in trauma, limitation of our trips), due to the confinement or closure of schools, and by the departure from Ile-de-France of some inhabitants “, underlines the AP-HP.
“But it is also probably due to the behavior of the patients themselves who wanted to avoid overloading the emergency services or their fear of contracting the Covid-19 in the hospital,” she added.
From March 15 to 30, 2020, the number of appendicitis treated by laparoscopy thus decreased by 35% compared to 2019. The number of cardiovascular accidents admitted to the emergency room, on April 14, was for its part 15% over the last seven days to that recorded in 2019.
A worrying situation in the eyes of the first French hospital group, which calls on patients not to give up “medical emergencies” and “routine care”, in particular for serious pathologies, such as cancers, for which a drop in attendance is also noted .
“Some cancers can progress quickly and become more serious if we postpone medical treatment,” said the AP-HP.
“Any appearance of a new symptom” must therefore “lead to rapid consultation with a doctor in town or at the hospital,” added the hospital group, which indicates that it has put in place “particularly strict protection and hygiene measures” to ” welcome patients safely. ”
Many doctors and health officials have sounded the alarm in recent weeks on the issue of renouncement of care, noted in particular in hospital departments, since the start of the coronavirus epidemic.
“We note a worrying drop in cancer screenings, a drop in vaccination. It is serious, it is a situation that must worry us,” Health Minister Olivier Véran acknowledged on Sunday, calling on the French to ” to get treatment “.
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