ADMISSIONS to Warrington and Halton hospitals fell to their lowest levels for at least five years last year, as operations were cancelled and people avoided A&E due to the pandemic.

Figures released under the Freedom of Information act by Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust revealed there were 42,588 admissions to Warrington in 2020, compared to 59,417 the year before. Admissions to Halton plummeted by a third to 9,823 over the same period compared to 14,882 in 2019.

The figures for the pandemic year were the lowest since at least 2015, the earliest year covered by the data.

Dan Moore, chief operating officer at the trust, said: “During the first wave, and in line with national guidance, our non-urgent elective programme was paused.

“This enabled clinical staff to be redeployed to frontline acute care in response to the pandemic.

“Urgent and emergency admissions were also lower during the period as the numbers of patients presenting through A&E declined.

“We continued with cancer and urgent surgeries, initially at Warrington Hospital where access to critical and high dependency care was required for these patients.”

He said that non-urgent operations were able to be carried out at Halton as part of its ‘green pathways’ process, with staff and patients being routinely screened for Covid, while additional checks were carried out on the day of admission and patients were required to isolate before being admitted for treatment.

Falls in A&E visits were recorded across the country last year, and were on average 57% lower than during the same period in 2019, and the lowest since records began in 2010.

Analysis of the fall nationally found there had been a drop in injuries due to school closures and sports and other activities being cancelled, while social distancing led to other, non-Covid contagious illnesses not spreading as easily.

But health experts also found a ‘worrying’ rise in people avoiding going to A&E with potentially serious symptoms such as chest pains because they were afraid of catching Covid.