Fetzer, T., Rauh, C.
Quantifying Excess Mortality Among Non COVID-19 Patients in Healthcare Settings
CWPE2252
Abstract: COVID-19 drastically increased demand- and supply pressures faced by healthcare systems. Increased pressures may have negative spillovers into non COVID-19 care which can cause preventable excess deaths among patients seeking medical help for reasons unrelated to COVID-19. This paper finds substantial and robust evidence of such non COVID-19 excess deaths among hospital patients leveraging data from an integrated public healthcare system: the NHS in England. We find that there is at least one additional preventable death among hospital patients seeking medical help for reasons unrelated to COVID-19 for every 30 deaths that can be linked to COVID-19. In aggregate, there were 4,003 such excess deaths during the first twelve months of the pandemic. At the healthcare provider level, the increase in non COVID-19 excess deaths is sharply increasing in COVID-19 induced pressures on hospitals.
Keywords: congestion effects, COVID-19, excess mortality, externalities, pandemic, public health
Author links: Christopher Rauh
PDF: https://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/research-files/repec/cam/pdf/cwpe2252.pdf 
Open Access Link: https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.89396
