In the Netherlands, at least ten thousand people will die on average ten years earlier. At least, that is stated in a report by the Gupta consultancy, which appeared on Thursday.
“For every death due to Covid-19, there are far more deaths due to the postponement of regular care,” it sounds. The researchers even speak of “unprecedented, disproportionate damage.”
Because there were so many corona patients in hospitals, many other treatments have been postponed in the past three months. For example, the number of patients treated in the cardiology department decreased by an average of 29 percent, in surgery that was 28 percent and in neurology departments by 24 percent, de Volkskrant writes.
The figures are shocking: the number of cancer diagnoses has dropped by thirty percent in the past three months, GPs have seen seventy percent fewer patients during their office hours, and cardiologists also report that heart patients are missing en masse.
According to the report, it leads to a loss of one hundred to four hundred thousand healthy life years. That loss would be ten times greater than the profit that the corona care has yielded.
Some nuance is in order, thinks health economist and emeritus professor Guus Schrijvers. “You can only find out whether these predictions are correct by comparing the amount of care that has been given to patients per hospital in recent months with the same period in recent years. And by following the patients who have not received care. There are probably also those for whom this had no consequences, ”he says to the newspaper.
Sources): De Volkskrant –
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