According to new data, more than 84,000 British patients were admitted to hospital due to a heart attack in 2021/22 – a year-on-year increase of more than 7,000.
It comes after warnings that heart deaths have risen by more than 500 per week since the first lockdown, with a drop in the number of people prescribed life-saving medication due to difficulty accessing GP care.
Health officials are concerned that people are still failing to come forward, adding to the so-called pandemic’s collateral damage.
The situation is so grievous, that an NHS advertisement was put up to encourage people to dial 999 as soon as they notice symptoms of a heart attack, such as squeezing across the chest, sweating, or a feeling of uneasiness, in order to give themselves the best chance of survival.
According to government data, while in 2019-2020, 82,000 people were hospitalised with heart attacks, between spring of 2020 and spring of this year, there were almost 100,000 extra deaths among those with heart disease. This meant that heart attacks rose to 500 per week.
The Telegraph tells you that this was because these patients could not access to GP care and thus, were not administered medication.
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