A GP practice managing 10,000 patients may have more than 400 undiagnosed chronic conditions because of the pressures of dealing with Covid-19, according to a new study from Wales.

The study included 5,476,012 diagnoses among 2,257,992 people. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) showed the largest deficit: the incidence was 38.4 per cent lower than expected. This finding corresponds to 343 patients with undiagnosed COPD per 100,000 of the population.

Depression (28.3 per cent lower; 712 undiagnosed cases), type 2 diabetes (26.4 per cent; 300), hypertension (25.5 per cent; 568), anxiety disorders (24.9 per cent; 830) and asthma (24.9 per cent; 250) showed the next largest deficits. Some patients had more than one chronic condition.

The authors comment that there is “a substantial backlog of undiagnosed patients who are unlikely to be receiving systematic monitoring and management”. 

Rectifying this backlog of case identification and consequent management deficits “is likely to require specific planning at [primary care] level”, they say. (British Journal of General Practice DOI:10.3399/BJGP. 2022.0353)