LANSING, Mich. — Doctors across the country are seeing a surge in sick patients.not from COVID-19, but from people delaying routine preventative checkups. Chris Conte takes a closer look at why putting-off that regular doctor's appointment could create long-term health issues.
Where patients could once be found, there is nothing but silence these days. As COVID-19 has kept countless Americans at home for fear of contracting the virus. A huge piece of what we do in primary care is prevention and not reaction.
As a primary care doctor at Vanderbilt University, Dr. John Scott can understand why people were initially delaying preventative care back in the spring.
But now, many of the patients he’s seeing are sicker, having delayed routine care for months.
We’re going to have to pay that bill later and the cost is going to be much greater.
What worries Doctor Scott the most a 50% drop off in cancer screenings across the country.
With Americans avoiding the doctor they’re putting off breast cancer, colon and cervical cancer screenings.
So the impact of that is significant when you think about the benefit of catching cancer at an early stage.
Nearly a third of Americans have put off healthcare during COVID-19.
But physicians nationwide are urging people to schedule that checkup sooner rather than later.
Healthcare is a marathon and you want to put the finish line as far out as possible so if we start skipping steps then we aren’t going to get to the finish line we want, and, according to the CDC, 40% percent of Americans are struggling mental health issues and depression right now.
Something most doctors screen for during regular checkups.
We are looking to intervene at every opportunity. So you’re missing that? Does that worry you? Oh, absolutely yes. And since it could be months or even years before the pandemic is over. Dr. Scott wants people to at least consider making that regularly scheduled checkup.
It’s safe to return, it’s safer to return than not when we look at these long term issue, there is medical care that needs to occur.
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