A third of people with heart attacks may not have gone to hospital at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
New research shows that only two thirds of the expected number of patients with heart attacks were admitted to hospital between the middle of February and the end of March 2020.
By the end of May, admission rates had partially recovered, but remained below expected levels.
In total, by the end of May there had been about 5,000 fewer admissions with heart attack in 2020 than would be expected, suggesting that many patients have missed out on lifesaving treatment.
Chris Gale, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at Leeds’ School of Medicine and one of the study’s authors, said: “One of the unintended consequences of the ‘stay at home’ message during the peak of the pandemic is that fewer people were seeking help for medical emergencies such as a heart attack.
“There is little doubt that this will have had substantial repercussions on population health outcomes.
“People will have died or developed heart failure as a result of not seeking treatment for their heart attack.”
The study, published today in The Lancet, used data regularly collected by NHS Digital from NHS Hospital Trusts in England to get up-to-date information about admissions to hospital.
The researchers were from the universities of Leeds, Oxford, Keele, University College London, Imperial College London, Barts Health NHS Trust and NHS Digital.
They documented a reduction in admissions with heart attack in England at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic by comparing weekly rates in 2020 with those observed in 2019.
They are continuing to monitor these trends and updated results will be posted every month.
