Thousands of middle-aged people who did not get statins or blood pressure medicines during the pandemic are dying of heart conditions, a leading UK medical expert has warned.
Britons' reluctance to bother the NHS with routine conditions after they were begged to stay at home except for emergencies during 2020 and 2021 is thought to be contributing to a surge in excess deaths.
Some 800 people more than usual are dying a week, only half of which are due to Covid.
Sir Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer for England, is becoming increasingly concerned over the increased number of deaths from preventable conditions and feared the UK was seeing the after-effects of people staying away from GP surgeries.
Ambulance delays have previously been said to have worsened the death toll as senior doctors have said longer wait times have seen the NHS struggle to treat heart attacks and strokes promptly.
Whitty is now understood to have raised the alarm in government about the potential contribution of patients' inability to get preventative drugs that are known to save lives, due to a widespread bid to stay away from GPs, the Times reports.
Senior doctors have agreed that advice to stay away from the NHS could have contributed to a recent rise in deaths while they have also pointed to unhealthy lifestyle habits adopted or exacerbated during the pandemic.
A move away from in-person doctors appointments in favour of online calls could also be contributing.
Excess deaths for normal conditions fell significantly at the start of the pandemic as Covid killed thousands. However, this pattern reversed as the pandemic waned with non Covid-related deaths climbing significantly above normal levels since the spring.
Sir Chris Whitty was said to have highlighted figures from the Office for National Statistics, which showed 5,170 non-Covid excess deaths in the past two years in men aged 50-64, a group that has benefited hugely from preventive heart treatments in recent years.
In women of the same age, there were 1,907 excess non-Covid deaths. This was in spite of there being fewer deaths than usual in other age groups.
Excess deaths was defined as the number of people dying above the five-year average.
This was calculated excluding 2020, when the figures were scrambled by Covid.
ONS data showed there had been 2,826 more deaths than usual from high blood pressure in the past two years. There had also been 2,806 from heart failure and other complications and 3,389 from irregular heartbeats.
The figures also illustrated that there had been 3,834 excess deaths from diabetes, a condition which can be managed with proper care.
There had also been some 3,834 excess deaths from liver cirrhosis, possibly resulting from dangerous drinking at home during the pandemic.
Kamila Hawthorne, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs, said that during the pandemic, NHS services were disrupted and in some cases patients did not come forward for treatment - often due to interpretation of public messaging to "protect the NHS".
"As a result, some people who would have been recommended preventative health interventions may not have been," she said.
She said that doctors “worked hard to identify and see those patients who may have missed routine check-ups during the pandemic”, and urged patients to “take up health checks and long-term care reviews when they receive invitations from their practice”.
Sonya Babu-Narayan, fromthe British Heart Foundation, said: “The longer a heart patient waits for treatment, the more likely it is that their condition could worsen.
"Because people have not had the check-ups they would routinely have before the pandemic, many remain unaware that they have high cholesterol or high blood pressure, putting them at a greater risk of early death from a heart attack or stroke.”
A technical report on Covid written this month saw Mr Whitty warn of a “prolonged period of non-Covid excess mortality” ahead.
He singled out “reductions in secondary prevention such as statins and antihypertensives” as a cause.
The Department of Health said: “We’re improving care and outcomes for people with heart disease by opening over 91 community diagnostic centres across the country, which have already delivered over 2.4 million additional checks.”
