Covid lockdowns resulted in an additional 3,000 diabetes deaths,NHS
A major NHS study warns that more than 3,000 diabetics in England may have died as a result of a lack of health checks during the first year of Covid.
After the first two lockdowns, there was a massive drop in critical checks and tests for diabetes patients in 2020, according to a review of more than 3 million diabetic patients.
However, researchers discovered that only 26.5 percent of people in England received their full set of checks in 2020/21, compared to 48 percent the previous year.
They claimed that when the NHS switched to remote working and cancelled routine appointments to focus on Covid, diabetes suffered a “double mortality hit.”
The study, led by NHS officials, compared diabetic deaths over a 15-week period in summer 2021 to the same period in 2019.
They discovered that non-Covid-related deaths among diabetes patients increased by 11% during this time period, resulting in an additional 3,075 deaths than would have been expected.
Diabetes charities said the study showed that patients were “pushed to the back of the queue” during the pandemic and suffered “absolutely devastating consequences.”
According to an NHS analysis, the proportion of diabetes patients in England who received all eight of their annual health checks for their condition fell by 44.8% during the lockdown.
