Cancer patients avoiding clinics amid COVID fallout fears
As the number of coronavirus cases grows in Victoria, cancer patients presenting to medical clinics have plunged by up to 40 per cent. Now authorities are warning the consequences of not seeking help for health conditions during the pandemic are “likely to be devastating” and even “life-threatening” for some.
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Patients presenting to Victorian medical clinics have plummeted by up to 40 per cent as fear of rising coronavirus cases stop people from seeking potentially lifesaving help.
Referrals to cancer clinics have plunged, emergency departments are seeing fewer patients with chest pains, and psychiatric illnesses requiring hospitalisation were on the rise, indicating that people avoiding treatment was leading to worsening conditions.
Australian Medical Association Victoria president Associate Professor Julian Rait said the health consequences of not seeking help for other conditions during the pandemic were “likely to be devastating” for the community.
“There is no doubt we are going to see a high number of non-COVID-19 related illnesses due to widespread avoidance of medical care,” he said.
“For some people, the consequences of this inaction could be life-threatening, with serious medical conditions going undetected.”
Desperate doctors are surviving on JobKeeper handouts and sacking nurses and receptionists as COVID-19 scares away patients.
More than 385,000 workers in healthcare and social assistance are relying on the federal government’s JobKeeper payment, the latest Treasury statistics reveal.
Medical clinics are among 86,000 businesses in the health sector that pocketed the wage subsidy in April — making up nearly 10 per cent of applicants. Some Australian doctors on the frontline of the pandemic have been forced to cut work hours, close clinics or shed staff due to quarantine lockdowns and panicky patients.
Victoria’s Royal Australian College of General Practitioners chairman Dr Cameron Loy said clinics were seeing a reduction in patient numbers of between 25 and 40 per cent.
He said when the COVID-19 numbers rose, it led to a noticeable decline in attendance at doctor’s clinics as people in the community — particularly in areas of high confirmed cases — tended to self-restrict.
“We are starting again to see a fall off in patient consults,” Dr Loy said of the second virus wave.
“We have seen there has been a strong reduction in referrals from GPs to tertiary cancer centres.
“We know people are sitting in our communities with cancers and they’re not attending to their health because they’re quite scared of the virus.”
Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre found in April that patient referrals dropped by a third compared to the same time last year.
With a fall in attendance hitting GP clinics — already under “financial strain” due to the Medicare freeze — Dr Loy said practice owners were “doing everything they can to maintain staff numbers”.
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