According to recent studies, cancer care has become even more difficult during the pandemic. Many patients are not diagnosed in the pandemic’s early stages, which has resulted in increased mortality since 2020.
How Covid 19 Influenced Cancer Care
Doctors say that the pandemic has resulted in a lack of access to medical facilities to treat other conditions. In many hospitals, patients struggled hard to get treated for non-Covid health problems. Several people had to postpone planned surgeries, and many suffered a lot due to such restrictions.
During the peak of the pandemic, many hospitals were restricted to treating only Covid patients, and they had to turn away other patients. This was done to provide priority treatment for Covid patients due to the rapid surge of infection across the country.
Every day, thousands of people were dying due to the pandemic, and hospitals did not have other options but to close the door on non-Covid patients. However, the situation somewhat improved after vaccines became readily available in 2021.
This has significantly affected the way cancer diagnosis is made, and many patients were not screened at the right time during the pandemic.
This has resulted in a loss of valuable time and affected the overall outcome of the treatment. Doctors warn cancer patients who are currently getting treatment to stick to the regime and not miss appointments during the pandemic.
Patients need to work hard to keep their immune systems strong to avoid infections. As cancer patients have a weaker immune system when compared to others, they are more vulnerable to Covid infections. When cancer patients become infected with Covid 19, they suffer from severe complications.
The mortality rate can go very high for cancer patients if timely treatment is not provided. However, the pandemic has resulted in a situation where cancer patients cannot attend treatment sessions in some cases. This has resulted in delayed treatment in many cases.
All these factors can impact the overall outcome of the treatment. Doctors say that cancer patients should not hesitate to visit hospitals for cancer treatment during the pandemic.
As some patients are afraid of catching Covid infection, they are not attending the treatment sessions at hospitals. However, there is no need to worry as hospitals take all the necessary precautions while handling cancer patients.
Experts suggest cancer patients take regular medication and eat a healthy diet to keep the immune system strong. In this way, they can stay away from infection and continue with the regular treatment regime.
Apart from that, they should also consider vaccination after consulting the doctors as this can help prevent the infection to a large extent. In this way, Covid complications can be avoided in the long run.
However, the pandemic has also brought some interesting changes to the way treatment is offered to patients in various hospitals. Telemedicine became popular during the pandemic, and most hospitals were more than willing to accept such changes.
Even patients connected well with such platforms, and it became easy to access healthcare services in this manner. Doctors were happy as they were able to connect with patients from remote locations and also cater to more patients. This is also less expensive when compared to conventional forms of treatment.
Experts feel that the pandemic has opened new doors in terms of offering telemedicine facilities for the public. This has improved access to health care facilities in many situations.
Patients from remote locations are now able to get in touch with expert doctors with the help of such facilities. In this way, the pandemic situation has also brought some positive changes to the health system.
