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.