Europe’s leading private hospital operator, the Helios Kliniken Group, has evaluated an analysis of cancer diagnosis and treatment during the lockdown. According to the analysis, however, it is not yet entirely clear whether the Corona pandemic and the harsh measures of the lockdown during the months from mid-March to mid-June 2020 have led to a higher mortality associated with the detection of significantly fewer cancer cases.
The fact is, however, that the spring 2020 lockdown caused ten to even 20 percent fewer admissions to inpatient facilities. The group of 75-year-olds and older was particularly noticeable. Data gaps in the cancer registry ensure that experts cannot (yet) answer the question of higher mortality. Established oncology practices recorded a decline in cancer diagnosis and treatment of eight percent during the hard lockdown, but then saw an increase again. However, in evaluating the study, discharges during therapy that did not occur in the spring also play a role, which could distort the picture. Lorenz Trümper, an oncologist at the University Medical Center Göttingen, also criticizes the so-called „free hold“ flat rates in hospitals, which now no longer exist. However, the situation has increasingly eased, so that for cancer patients, for example with breast or colon cancer, postponements of a maximum of a few days should not be decisive, experts say. Cancer specialist societies also warn, however, that cancer patients should not be neglected, because a cancer in a far more advanced stage is by far much more dangerous than the risk of contracting the coronavirus in the hospital during diagnosis or therapy. All facilities, such as hospitals and clinics, have taken precautionary, protective and hygienic measures in good time, emphasize individual experts.
Source: apotheken-umschau.de