Panic before entering the hospital and therefore no cancer diagnosis? Not enough staff, not enough free beds, no vital operations?
There were great fears that oncological care would have deteriorated during the corona pandemic. After analyzing the number of patients over the past two years, the Ordensklinikum Linz is now giving the all-clear: In some cases, the waiting time for operations has even been reduced, the new diagnosis of diseases and the survival rates have remained constant. “You can say that the care worked in Upper Austria,” says Elisabeth Brautigam, medical director at the Sisters of Mercy location.
The authorities have also supported treatments when, for example, cancer patients suffering from asymptomatic Covid-19 were transported to the hospital with special transport in such a way that they did not have to interrupt their radiation therapy. The number of cancer diagnoses also remained relatively constant over the pandemic years. In 2019, 3080 patients were diagnosed with cancer, in 2020 there were 3272 patients. Although stopping the breast cancer screening program for up to eight weeks at the beginning of the pandemic led to a 7.5 percent drop in new diagnoses, by the end of 2020 they were back to the previous year’s level. “It is not possible to say whether this delayed diagnosis means a specific disadvantage for the patients concerned, because breast cancer is not the same as breast cancer,” says Ansgar Weltermann, head of the Upper Austria Tumor Center.
Source: Nachrichten
