The number of hospital treatments in Westphalia-Lippe is also declining in the third Corona year 2022. This is shown by a current analysis by AOK NordWest. According to this, the number of cases of somatic diseases fell again compared to the previous year by 0.8 percent to 550,196 cases. Compared to 2019 before the corona pandemic, the minus was 13.4 percent.
Psychiatric hospitalizations were down 0.2 percent year-on-year in 2022, compared to 9 percent in 2019. “Even in the third year of the pandemic, Corona had the clinics in Westphalia-Lippe firmly under control. However, the fall in the number of cases in the past year was no longer due to the freeing up of capacities for seriously ill corona patients. The reason for the enormous loss of staff was the strong waves of infection caused by the Omicron variant,” says Tom Ackermann, CEO of AOK NordWest.
The breakdown of the figures according to the reasons for treatment up to October 2022 shows: The strongest declines were again in the so-called outpatient-sensitive diagnoses, which can be adequately treated both in the hospital and by appropriately qualified resident doctors. High blood pressure (minus 31 percent) and back pain (minus 29 percent) saw the largest declines compared to the year 2019, followed by chronic lung disease COPD (minus 24 percent) and diabetes (minus 21 percent). “Even in the first two years of the pandemic, there were declines of a comparable magnitude. Corona is obviously having an accelerating effect here in terms of the urgently needed greater outpatient treatment. In the case of individual diagnoses, the reduction in oversupply is likely to play a role in view of the large and ongoing slumps,” says Ackermann.
Decrease in the number of cases of heart attack and stroke
Also striking is the continuing decline in the number of cases of heart attacks and strokes, which can be seen until October 2022: Heart attack treatments have fallen by nine percent compared to 2019, stroke treatments by twelve percent. “The dips in emergency treatment for a stroke or heart attack are a cause for concern. The appeal to alert the emergency services in emergencies without hesitation is still valid,” says Ackermann.
Proportion of severe Covid 19 diseases has fallen significantly
The evaluation also shows the developments in inpatients treated for whom Covid-19 was the primary reason for treatment. A comparison of the previous pandemic waves shows that the proportion of serious illnesses in the two omicron waves of 2022 has fallen significantly. The proportion of ventilated patients fell to nine percent in the sixth wave of the pandemic from June to September 2022. For comparison: In the fourth wave at the end of 2021 it was still 22 percent.
Mortality in ventilated Covid 19 patients remains high
Mortality was also significantly lower in the two omicron waves, at 15 and 11 percent, respectively, than in the fourth pandemic wave from October to December 2021, at 20 percent. In the third wave of the pandemic from March to May 2021, the mortality rate had already been 14 percent. In this phase of the pandemic, however, the low average age of the patients of 59 years is likely to have played a major role. In the first two waves of the pandemic it was 65 and 66 years, respectively, in the omicron wave at the beginning of 2022 it was 69 years.
