All the extra deaths from lack of treatment due to Covid. Reports by oncologists, hematologists and cardiologists
Foce, the Federation of Oncologists, Hematologists and Cardiologists, has sent Draghi a report on the state of the health system after more than a year of pandemic. The report takes stock of the effects of the pandemic on the 11 million Italians who are affected by heart, oncological or haematological diseases.
In 2020, Italy recorded 108,178 more deaths than the previous year, 21% more than the average of the previous 5 years. About 69% are due to Covid, the remaining 31%, therefore about 30 thousand people , is represented by deaths related to non-Covid pathologies such as cardiological diseases, of patients who have not found adequate and timely assistance.
This is the analysis of FOCE , the Federation of oncologists, hematologists and cardiologists, which has drawn up a report sent to Prime Minister Mario Draghi , on the state of the Italian health system after more than a year of pandemic. The report takes stock of the effects of the pandemic on the 11 million Italians who are affected by heart, oncological or haematological diseases.
Mortality in Italy caused by lack of assistance
In the document " State of the management of oncohematological and cardiological diseases during the Covid pandemic in Italy ", the doctors of the Foce warn about the indirect impact that Covid is having on the health of Italian health. In particular, "the growing waiting list for ordinary hospital admissions and the very high percentage of occupancy of both ordinary medical stays and intensive care which is emerging in most regions" are worrying. There may also be repercussions in the next few years when there will be "a substantial increase in mortality linked to the lack of assistance of patients suffering from oncohematological diseases, for which considerable diagnostic delays and therefore much more advanced diseases are already occurring".
Non-Covid mortality in Italy in comparison with European countries
The FOCE document reports INPS data according to which "Italy had an excess of mortality due to non-Covid causes equal to 40% of all excess mortality with about 19 thousand more deaths in the March-April 2020 period alone" . The comparison with other European countries shows how much the Italian health system has been stressed by the epidemic. In the United Kingdom, the excess mortality stops at 27% equal to + 12,400 deaths, in France to 5.6% equal to + 1429 deaths, in Sweden even to 1.8% equal to only 54 deaths and Germany does not recorded no excess mortality not attributable to Covid ". These data show that in Italy, in addition to the high mortality from Covid, " a significant share of deaths attributable to other causes and other pathologies was found, unlike the other European countries of reference, in which these deaths occurred to an extent significantly lower or even did not occur ".
In Italy virus more lethal than in all of Europe
Added to this is that the death rate from Covid in Italy is higher than in all other European countries "with 3.03% among the infected and 177 deaths per 100 thousand inhabitants ", in second place "the United Kingdom with 2.9% ", then" Germany at 2.63%, and with 35 thousand less deaths than Italy compared to a population difference of 23 million more citizens, France with 1.98% and with 15 thousand deaths in less and a population of 9 million more ”. To this it must be added that the United Kingdom will leave the second position thanks to the massive vaccination campaign underway in recent weeks. Furthermore, Italy occupies the fifth position in the world in the lethality ranking "after Mexico, South Africa, Iran and Peru".
Italian health system: a body to be reformed
According to Foce, these disheartening data show an inability of the Italian Health System to respond to the pandemic stress. The reasons for identifying doctors are different. "The hospital sector already at the time of the start of the pandemic had a total number of ordinary beds per hundred thousand inhabitants much lower than the European average (314 vs 500), placing us in twenty-second place in the ranking among European countries – reads the report -. And the situation has not changed today because we do not know that the Regions have taken steps in recent months to increase the overall endowment of ordinary beds, especially those of Medicine ”. Indeed, the situation would have even worsened because "the creation of beds for Covid patients is taking place everywhere to the detriment of the beds normally reserved for other patients with other pathologies".
The provision of intensive care beds
Another sore point are the beds for intensive care. "Italy has gone from 8.6 per 100,000 inhabitants to 14 and this already represents an important improvement – writes La Foce -, assuming that the Regions have actually implemented the activation of additional intensive care beds, 3,307 in addition to the 5,149 already existing , something which has also been discussed a lot by the media. However, we would still always be behind Germany (34 intensive care beds per 100,000 inhabitants), Austria (29), Belgium (17) and France (17) (12), (13) ”.
Healthcare staff wanted
There is also a shortage of health personnel, which is why calls have been issued in recent months to call retired doctors and nurses back into service. "Also with regard to health personnel working in hospitals in Italy, in 2016 hospital doctors were about 130 thousand and subsequently they also decreased , in Germany 60 thousand more and therefore 190 thousand, and in France 43 thousand more, a total of 172 thousand – reads the report -. And now we are desperately looking for doctors and nurses, when several years ago with a law that had catastrophic consequences it was decided to even institute a limited number in the Faculty of Medicine ".
Spending for the NHS: Italy is better only than Eastern countries
The report then highlights the difficulty of having access to assistance in support of non self-sufficiency such as places in nursing homes or home services, all in a nation that is witnessing a progressive increase in the elderly population. "The overall expenditure of our country for the National Health Service ranked Italy for 2017 in fifteenth place in Europe for percentage of GDP (European average 9.9% vs 8.8% for Italy) – continues the document . Italy finishes behind Switzerland (12.4%), France and Germany (11.3%), Sweden (11%), Belgium (10.3%), Holland and Denmark (10.1%), United Kingdom ( 9.6%), Spain (8.9%), Greece (8.5%), Italy is ahead only of the countries of Eastern Europe. "It is clear – the report concludes – that funding for Healthcare must grow a lot, only to get closer to those of other European countries of the same level as us".
Vaccination campaign: another stumbling block for our country
Another cause of the persistent high mortality would derive from the management of the vaccination campaign . In this case, in addition to the intermittent supply of doses and the difficulty of communicating with the Astrazeneca vaccine, the choice of the categories of people to be vaccinated with priority ends up in the dock. A decision “which has led categories of citizens certainly not at risk of lethality in case of contagion to precede the subjects really at risk, namely the elderly, especially the over seventy, and fragile patients suffering from major diseases – writes La Foce -. In fact, current data show that up to now as many as 35% of citizens already vaccinated did not belong to the category with the greatest risk of lethality and, above all, of the approximately 16 million citizens at greatest risk, only 38% have so far received the vaccination. As for citizens at risk by age, current data show that only 68% of over 80s received the first dose and only 38% received both doses, as well as only 19% of citizens aged between 70-79 years ".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/sanita/tutti-i-morti-in-piu-per-assenza-di-cure-a-causa-del-covid-report-di-oncologi-ematologi-e-cardiologi/ on Wed, 14 Apr 2021 14:30:50 +0000.