Inpatient treatments also below pre-corona level in 2022
Significantly fewer patients were treated as inpatients in North Rhine-Westphalia's hospitals last year than before the pandemic. Across the state, just under 4.1 million people left hospital after inpatient treatment in 2022, according to the State Statistical Office in Düsseldorf on Thursday. Although this was a good 10,000 more patients than in 2021, it was a good 567,000 fewer patients than in 2019.
Between 2010 and 2016, the number of inpatient treatments in NRW hospitals had risen continuously and then reached its highest level in the past decade in 2019 with just under 4.66 million patients, according to earlier data.
The North Rhine-Westphalia Hospital Association pointed out that the hospitals still had extensive restrictions in 2022, particularly due to staff shortages. Corona infections played the central role in this, said a spokesperson. For this reason, non-acute operations that could have been planned were postponed. The development varies greatly from hospital to hospital. Some hospitals have now almost reached pre-pandemic levels. However, most hospitals are suffering from the fact that the figures are still significantly lower, while the costs for energy and staff, among other things, have risen massively.
As in the two previous years, diseases of the circulatory system (608,300 cases) and diseases of the digestive system (412,600 cases) were the diagnostic areas with the most treatment cases in 2022, as the State Statistical Office explained with regard to hospital stays. The highest increase in patients among the most common diagnostic areas was in diseases of the respiratory system (277,145 cases) with an increase of almost 10 percent.
Despite the rise in hospital admissions from 2021 to 2022, the number of inpatient treatments remained significantly below pre-pandemic levels in North Rhine-Westphalia's hospitals. This situation, as noted by the Hospital Association, is largely due to persistent restrictions, particularly staff shortages and the impact of Corona infections, which have led to the postponement of non-acute operations.
Source: www.dpa.com