Coronavirus: Brighton doctor urges people to A&E if needed

A&E consultant Dr Rob Galloway fears patients staying at home with chest or abdominal pains will come to harm if they do not go to hospital when they should.

He said emergency admissions to the Royal Sussex County Hospital and Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital in Brighton and the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath had fallen by 23 per cent in March compared with last year.

While he welcomed people’s attitudes towards the pandemic, he assured those needing emergency care they can still get it.

Emergency admissions at the Royal Sussex County Hospital dropped year-on-year in March

“The hospital is very well set up for both Covid and non-Covid patients,” Dr Galloway said.

“There are three groups of patients we think are responsible for the drop in A&E admissions.

“One is those who would have normally got injured from going out drinking. We would expect those numbers to go down.

“Also going down are those who don’t need to go to A&E and should instead go to pharmacies and GPs, like those with a rash.

“The ones we’re worried about are the non-Covid patients with serious conditions like chest pains or abdominal pains who are choosing not to go to A&E.”

A&E patients will not come into contact with coronavirus patients, hospital chiefs insist

Dr Galloway said one patient with abdominal pains who did not go to A&E early was eventually diagnosed with blood poisoning.

“We’ve seen cases where patients have come to harm because of delay,” he said.

“Somebody with severe abdominal pains could have come to A&E straight away, been diagnosed with appendicitis, and got an appendectomy in a few hours.

“But if you stay at home and leave it longer it can go from appendicitis to septicaemia and from two days in hospital to two weeks in the ICU.

“We don’t want people who’ve had a rash for a week or a cough for three years to come to A&E because they can speak to their GP or pharmacist about this.

“We just want people to follow the previous advice.”

The A&E doctor said those needing emergency treatment should not worry about catching coronavirus in hospital.

“We’ve completely reorganised the hospital to separate Covid and non-Covid patients,” he said.

“There are Covid ICUs and non-Covid ICUs, Covid wards and non-Covid wards, Covid doctors and non-Covid doctors.

“We’ve got enough staff and spare beds.

“You won’t come into contact with Covid patients.”

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