Long COVID has significantly increased doctor visits, home care needs as well as hospitalizations for a small proportion of Ontarians who were infected early in the pandemic, a new study finds.
Researchers say that doesn’t bode well for a healthcare system that was hit by the wave of the Omicron variant earlier this year and is now gearing up for a wave expected in the fall and winter.
“Many of us are worried about how we are going to provide care for people with cancer, heart attacks and strokes, and are also trying to catch up on the backlog of care that has not been able to be managed over the past two years,” said emergency physician Dr. Candace McNaughton.
The study, published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, looked at the health care utilization of 531,702 Ontario residents who took PCR tests between Jan. 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021.
The researchers focused on a relatively small group of Ontarians who sought care for COVID-19 eight weeks or more after being diagnosed. Their results suggest that this cohort spent an average of 50% more days in hospital than their counterparts who were not infected with COVID-19.
At the higher end, the analysis suggests that 1% of women spent six and a half days longer in hospital and had 28 more home visits per year than otherwise. Also, 1% of men spent about nine more days in the hospital, but needed less home care.
Although 1% is a small proportion, the disproportionate demand of this subgroup for increased medical care has strained resources which have only become scarce this year, noted Dr McNaughton who is co-author of the study.
She points out that there has been a significant increase in COVID-19 infections since the study was conducted, as well as severe staffing shortages that have extended emergency department stays and overwhelmed pediatric hospitals.
Investments requested
The report ends with calls for substantial restructuring and investment in health care.
“When we started our analysis, just under a year ago, things seemed to be running out of steam. And we really hoped at the time that it would be an entirely academic exercise,” Ms. McNaughton mentioned.
“Canada did a fantastic job of containing the spread of the virus, and so there weren’t really – compared to many other countries – that many people infected. But about a year later, more than half of Canadians have been infected and so 1% of half the country is quite significant. »
Omicron variants, which are more contagious, have driven cases up for much of 2022, infecting 62% of Canadians as of September, up from just 5% in August 2021, according to the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force. before the Delta wave.
Ms McNaughton says it’s unclear how much of the current crisis facing many hospitals is affected by long-running COVID cases, but she’s seen patients “spending 12, 16, 18 hours in the ER (suffer) from complications from a previous COVID infection.” With PCR tests no longer readily available, she said it was now difficult to confirm COVID-19 infections.
A large proportion of long COVID cases also continue to confuse clinicians, she adds.
“Patients often have to see several doctors to try to figure out what is going on. And once they’re diagnosed with long COVID, we don’t have a treatment that we know works. So they find themselves trying a bunch of different things,” she says.
“For someone who is already not well, who is feeling pretty bad, it can be a huge burden for them and their family to try to navigate the healthcare system. »
She argues that the study results also make a good case for a return to mask-wearing indoors, especially as flu season is also approaching.
A previous infection doesn’t guarantee you won’t get COVID-19 again, she points out, and even mild cases can lead to what’s called long COVID, most often defined by symptoms that last. more than three months.
Dr. McNaughton wants to see the government invest more in hiring nurses and keeping them employed, as well as improving indoor ventilation and resuming prevention measures to better communicate the risks of infection to the audience.
“I hope that individuals, governments and health care leaders can take a look at this information and plan ahead how they will use the available resources,” said Ms McNaughton, a physician at Sunnybrook Research Institute in Toronto. .