Doctors reveal drop in ED visits
Most presentations fell to 'concerning' levels at the height of COVID-19, but visits for mental illness went up at Sydney's Westmead Hospital
Doctors are warning of a “concerning” drop in ED presentations at four Sydney hospitals where cases fell by 25% during the height of the pandemic compared with the same time last year.
However, the number of mental health-related attendances rose from a daily mean of 6.9 cases during those months in 2019 to 8.4 cases a day in 2020, the researchers write in the Medical Journal of Australia.
Senior RMO at Westmead Hospital Dr Andrew Kam and colleagues compared ED presentations from 29 March to 31 May with the same period last year at four hospitals with EDs in the Western Sydney Local Health District.
“We found concerning reductions in ED presentation numbers that may indicate delayed seeking of appropriate medical attention,” they wrote.
