"At least one million hospitalizations postponed for a pandemic in four months, including over half a million for non-urgent surgery, ranging from hip replacement to herniated disc, through dermatological surgery." With "heavy repercussions on waiting lists throughout 2020 and beyond". To explain to ANSA is Americo Cicchetti, director of the High School of Economics and Management of Health Systems of the Catholic University of Rome.
All the activities that hospitals do in a planned manner in recent months have been moved to 100%, both to balance resources in the Covid departments and to protect patients and health care workers with the social distancing necessary to stem the spread of the virus.
"But this means that we will find ourselves at the end of the pandemic, hopefully by June, having to recover a whole series of interventions . To calculate effects, it is enough to understand how many surgical DRGs are done in four months and which have been suspended. According to the Report on the Factsheets of hospital discharges in 2017 (last available data), every month in Italy - the expert explains to ANSA - there are about 673,000 acute hospitalizations (ie excluding rehabilitations and long-term care). Considering that half of these are deferred (while the the other half are urgent and are guaranteed), in March, April, May and June approximately one million hospitalizations in Italy will skip, of which at least 510,000 for surgical interventions and the remainder for therapies and hospital pharmacological treatments ". Many will be moved to after the end of the health emergency and will be added to what would normally be there.
For example, very few surgeries are being done in neurosurgery, almost essentially for brain cancer . In gastroenterology all interventions are stopped except those for example for colorectal cancer .
Stop hip replacement, knee surgery, surgical operations to remove moles, unless they are dangerous, and those for varicose veins .
"After June we hope for a gradual return to normal in terms of the health organization, but that too will be a long and difficult phase. This means - concludes Cicchetti - that in the months following the end of the pandemic we will have great pressure on hospital activity, which it will at least double or triple the waiting times. And the queue in organizational terms will continue throughout 2020 and beyond. "