Non-Covid patients felt ‘neglected’ in pandemic

People not diagnosed with covid complained that they were either left to die or develop unbearable side effects of the disease when the pandemic was at its peak in England, this emerged from the Covid Inquiry. 
 
Cancer patients have been neglected some health workers confessed while those with other conditions stated that they have been forgotten listening exercise which was part of the inquiry. 

The support has also interviewed tens of thousands of people about their COVID-19 stories and released the results of its first Every Story Matters exercise during the evidentiary phase of its third public inquiry into health care. 
 
One of the painful testimony included in the report is the lamentation of a doctor who accused government of neglecting cancer patients during the lock down. 
 
“In the lockdown, people were still getting poorly. A patient was diagnosed with cancer and could not get an appointment,” the doctor added. 
 
“Do not leave it people with other treatment requirements The chemo treatment was called off the cancer continued to spread and the patients died,” they stated. 
 
The inquiry cited a patient who said that the “government wanted me to die” because of the delays on their operation. 
 
“I was in hospital for eight weeks due to the postponement of my operation, but I was not allowed to have visitors stay with me because of the ongoing lock down because of the Covid-19 pandemic; and I was fixed to my hospital bed as we were restricted from moving round the hospital due to the same Covid-19 measures. ” “There were many moments that I thought this government wanted me dead than to protect me”. 
 
Another said about his grandmother, she said that dementia of his grandmother was not properly treated because one day she went to the GP alone and she cannot recall what the doctor told her. 
 
Her grand-daughter stated when she contacted the surgery for further information she was “told I did not have permission to obtain any information due to patient confidentiality and I could not get any information. ” 
 
“My grandmother will now never ever get back any part of that memory and mental health she was once had,” she added. 
 
“It may have been prevented if something was done at the first GP consultation. 

Although I did get the COVID-19 dangers and precautions that must have been taken during the lockdown period, I thought this was a major disadvantage and has affected the health of my grandmother as well as the relationship of my entire family negatively. 
 
In an interview, another was informed, because of the personnel shortage they were told that, you know, ‘we can’t operate until it’s life or death’ really; another said because they had no hope of making a full recovery any more this person was experiencing intolerable side-effects. 
 
“I still look forward to the operation that was delayed from spring of 2020,” They stated. 

The report also addresses DNACPR notices and end-of-life care along with families who did not know that an order had been made. 

‘They were throwing away old people’ 
 
An activist caring for a Covid patient said that the messages in the notices made them feel like “they were setting out to euthanise the elderly”. 
 
“We never knew that he had a DNR and actually my mum had the do not resuscitate power of attorney for him…The only reason we are aware of it is because when he was discharged they put it in his discharge pack. ” 
 
“But the fact that we weren’t involved in the decision and knowing that dad’s got Alzheimer’s. It sort of like they put it in the bin like ‘They’re like this, they’re like this. They’re old’ you know. ” 
 
They surfaced in the evidence session yesterday, when Jacqueline Carey KC, counsel to the inquiry, said that DNR uses were to be addressed. 
 
She also touched on the “immense pain and harm” felt by families unable to say goodbye to loved ones during the crisis, adding: “You may have a concern that this is the way UK may have to behave if there is next pandemic, you may have a belief that this is something our society cannot and should not allow, This can be concerning facilitation of visits at the end of life and you may wish to think about these and possibly will be able to do more on these in this as well as other subsequent modules. 
 
Ms Carey said to Baroness Hallett, the chairman of the investigation, she would find out how the pandemic affected the care of patients not infected by Covid. 
 
This included people no longer being admitted to hospital for heart attacks during the pandemic; delay in performing hip replacement surgeries; a change in the number of new bowel cancer cases; children and young people’s in-patient mental health care and maternity care. 
 
“My lady will now see that however necessary it was to tell the public to ‘stay at home protect the NHS’, there was an undoubted impact on people who needed care for other conditions apart from Covid in a way that may not necessarily have been intended,” Ms Carey said. 
 
“In fact, it is also proved that regardless the status of the disease, many persons were apprehensive not to go to the hospital. 
 
She revealed that the authorities of the Health had said that in the next pandemic, it should be to keep cancer treatment functional and should even contemplate the establishment of ‘ring-fenced’ elective surgery centres volition. 
 
Other submissions yesterday were given by Adam Wagner, who represented pregnancy, baby and parents organizations, who stated that parents had to choose between options that were acceptable. 
 
In one of the instances, Mr Wagner stated that one woman had to call her partner after she underwent an emergency operation to say that their twins had died but they were given no signal and thus had to decide on where to bury the embryos’ ashes alone. 
 
He described how many of the pregnant women had been let down and ‘traumatised’ and how others died ‘in potentially avoidable circumstances’. 
 
The inquiry goes on Tuesday.