In a new study, researchers found that the death rate for people who experienced what is normally a lower-risk heart attack rose sharply during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In comparison, the death rate for people who had a more severe heart attack fell.
It also revealed a substantial drop in the number of people who were arriving at the hospital with a heart attack. At its lowest point, hospitals were treating just over half the cases they would normally expect to see.
The research was conducted by a team at the University of Leeds and elsewhere.
Although the number of people seeking medical help did rebound, they had not returned to their pre-COVID-19 levels by 22 May, when the study period ended.
The reduction in patients seeking timely help is likely to have resulted in people dying at home or developing chronic heart problems.
Despite the pressures on the NHS from COVID-19, the study showed that hospitals were able to maintain their emergency cardiac services in the vast majority of cases and adhere to best-practice clinical guidelines.
The study is the first detailed insight into what happened to heart attack patients as the NHS reorganized services to focus on COVID-19.
The study was only possible after Ministers sanctioned access to anonymized patient data.
Researchers analyzed admission data for 50,689 patients who had a heart attack and were treated at 99 acute NHS hospitals in England over the 14 months prior to the UK lockdown on 23 March and the first two months of lockdown.
They found that although patients were able to get access to high levels of care, a lot of very ill people were not seeking emergency treatment and that may have been an unintended consequence of the ‘Stay at Home’ messaging.”
The study provides evidence for the devastating impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on people’s lives.
The inflation in deaths among people attending hospital with a heart attack is very likely an early signal of the mortality and morbidity that is yet to be observed.
The team says if people experience chest pain or discomfort, which may feel like squeezing or heaviness or tightness not necessarily the chest-clutching agony and which may radiate to the jaw, arm, back or stomach, it’s important to understand they could be having a heart attack.
Thanks to decades of research, prompt treatment for the heart attack could save a life, so if people think they are experiencing symptoms call an ambulance immediately.
One author of the study is Dr. Jianhua Wu, Associate Professor in Biostatistics at the University of Leeds.
The study is published in the European Heart Journal—Quality of Care and Clinical Outcomes.
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