Pandemic Pressures and Public Health Care: Evidence from England by Thiemo Fetzer

Join us for the latest Applied Economics Research Seminar Series event, Spring Term 2022.

Thiemo Fetzer from the Department of Economics, University of Warwick, will present their research on Pandemic Pressures and Public Health Care: Evidence from England by Thiemo Fetzer.

Abstract

This paper documents that the COVID-19 pandemic induced pressures on the health care system have significant adverse knock-on effects on the accessibility and quality of non-COVID-19 care. We observe persistently worsened performance and longer waiting times in A&E; drastically limited access to specialist care; notably delayed or inaccessible diagnostic services; acutely undermined access to and quality of cancer care. We find that providers under COVID-19 pressures experience notably more excess deaths among non-COVID related hospital episodes such as, for example, for treatment of heart attacks. We estimate there to be at least one such non-COVID-19 related excess death among patients being admitted to hospital for non-COVID-19 reasons for every 30 COVID-19 deaths that is caused by the disruption to the quality of care due to COVID-19. In total, this amounts to 4,003 non COVID-19 excess deaths from March 2020 to February 2021. Further, there are at least 32,189 missing cancer patients that should counterfactually have started receiving treatment which suggests continued increased numbers of excess deaths in the future due to delayed access to care in the past.

The seminar will begin with a presentation and will end with a Q and A session.

It will be held at 4pm on Thursday 24th February at the Colchester Campus, in the Economics Common Room. It will also be available on zoom. This event is open to all levels of study and is also open to the public. To register your place and gain access to the webinar, please contact the seminar organisers.

This event is part of the Applied Economics Research Seminar Series.