“When I called the patients, many answered me: No doctor, we don’t come, we postpone “Reports Mohand Goudjil. The head of the cardiology department at the Reception and Hospital Care Center (Cash) in Nanterre sees, relieved, his usual patients gradually return.
Because as he found that during the two months of confinement, many patients followed for chronic diseases (heart failure and diabetes, in particular) “were afraid to come and canceled their appointment”. The general practitioners’ offices in town, the oncology, cardiology or diabetology consultations in hospitals remained deserted for almost the entire duration of the confinement. Since April, doctors have been alerting to delays in treatment and the lack of follow-up of treatments.
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“When we make a very global assessment of this health crisis, we will have on one side, obviously, deaths linked to Covid-19 but we will surely also have a series of excess mortalities linked to the indirect consequences of Covid-19”, had indicated Pr Jean-François Delfraissy, president of the Scientific Committee, mid-April, during a hearing at the National Assembly.
Today, fears of coronavirus contamination in the hospital have subsided. Information concerning the differentiated pathways set up at the hospital for Covid and non-Covid patients or suspects seems to have been circulated. The sick come back. “They are reassured by the measures taken at the hospital,” said the cardiologist in Nanterre.
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But doctors observe that their state of health has often deteriorated. “We have chronic patients who have become destabilized. Diabetics who have degraded due to the lack of activity, notes Dr. Goudjil. “
