A North Wales MP, who is himself a doctor, has raised concerns that people are not seeking medical assistance during the Covid-19 pandemic, following the publication of an article which suggested that only one third of excess deaths in the community in England and Wales can be explained by Covid-19.
Dr James Davies, MP for the Vale of Clwyd, raised the matter when taking part in a recent virtual meeting of the Health and Social Care Committee.
In the Oral Evidence session on ‘Delivering Core NHS and Care Services during this Pandemic and Beyond’, James, who has been a doctor for 16 years, asked the panel to respond to what he described as a “worrying article” published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) on May 13th.
This suggested that only one third of excess deaths in the community in England and Wales can be explained by Covid-19.
James said:
“In the article David Spiegelhalter, Chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at the University of Cambridge, said that Covid-19 did not fully explain the high number of deaths taking place in the community.
“Excess deaths, seemingly not explained by Covid, are occurring worldwide.
“I asked the panel whether the figures reported in the BMJ article reflect reductions in the use of health services.
“There has been a notable drop in the number of people using A&E, ambulance services, emergency social ormental health services, out-of-hours, walk-in centres, minorinjury units and telephone advice and triage during this pandemic.
“This is something that needs to urgently be addressed as we continue to battle Covid-19. Some have been worried about contracting Covid through the use of NHS services while others have thoughtfully made a conscious effort to reduce the pressure on those services.
“However, it is important that the message goes out that NHS services are open, that measures have been put in place to protect patients while accessing services, and that everyone must act on concerns about their health as they would do normally.”
