Up to 8,700 patients died within 28 days after catching Covid while in hospital for another medical problem, according to NHS data provided by the hospitals themselves. University Hospitals Birmingham is the trust which has recorded the highest number of hospital-acquired Covid infections, as well as the highest number of deaths from Covid caught in hospital. The Guardian has the story.
NHS leaders and senior doctors have long claimed hospitals have struggled to stop Covid spreading because of shortages of single rooms, a lack of personal protective equipment and an inability to test staff and patients early in the pandemic.
Now, official figures supplied by NHS trusts in England show that 32,307 people have probably or definitely contracted the disease while in hospital since March 2020 – and 8,747 of them died.
That means that almost three in 10 (27.1%) of those infected that way lost their lives within 28 days.
The Guardian obtained the data under freedom of information laws from 81 of England’s 126 acute hospital trusts.
The responses show that every trust had to grapple with what doctors call nosocomial or hospital-acquired infection. Many hospitals were unable to keep Covid-positive patients separate from those without the disease, which led to its lethal transmission.
According to the FoI responses, University Hospitals Birmingham trust had the highest number of deaths (408), followed by Nottingham University Hospitals (279) and Frimley Health (259). Nine trusts had 200 or more deaths.
However, the numbers of deaths are influenced by factors such as a hospital’s size, number of single rooms and capacity of its intensive care unit, and the makeup of its local population and level of infection among them, as well as weaknesses in infection control procedures.
At a handful of trusts, about a third of all people who died after catching Covid had become infected in hospital. They include Royal Cornwall hospitals (36%), Salisbury (35.2%) and Kettering general hospital (31.2%).
The answers provided to the Guardian reveal that the 8,747 who died were all in hospital for another reason, such as treatment for a fall, flare-up of a serious illness, or to have an operation.
The figures include people who died in hospital and after discharge. They do not distinguish between those who died of Covid, with Covid or of another condition potentially exacerbated by the virus, such as a heart attack.
Worth reading in full.
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Dear Deirdre
My ageing boyfriend and father of my child has proposed
He doesn’t have a good track record in the fidelity stakes
He’s in a bit of a pickle over money and a couple of other things and could end up in court
I was looking over his shoulder the other day and saw he was reading up on Section 80 of The Police and Criminal Act, this is the bit where a wife cannot be compelled to give evidence in court against her husband
I’m not sure of his motives
On the other hand I could marry and divorce him screwing him for half his pension in the process
Confused
SW1
Make sure to dump him with the pesky kid.
My wife and myself go to the same Dentist, I pay into an insurance scheme (not private) and my wife is an NHS patient.
My appointments and treatments have continued unaffected whereas my wife had to wait for over a year for a checkup.
Strange that, ain’t it?
I’m a bit confused FP, what sort of insurance scheme is ‘not private’?
About 15 years ago I spent several thousand pounds over 18 months paying for private dentistry (largely to replace childhood NHS amalgam fillings and consequential decay).
I had to deny myself holidays in exotic climes to afford payment.
Having subsequently recieved my Certificate of Oral Hygiene I was able to obtain insurance for a few pounds per month to cover any further work that might be needed (thus far not required).
Beats anything the NHS has to offer.
I gather that private dentistry is now even more expensive but this is hardly surprising given that practitioners currently have to go through so many hoops to ensure Covid Safety that their throughput of clients has halved despite increased lockdown related overheads.
My insurance (£22 per month) only covers 2 checkups and 2 hygienist sessions per year plus 20% off any further treatment(s).
Our dentist has 3 levels of cover, NHS,Dental plan(my cover) and full private cover.
Sorry for any confusion.
The NHS has always been, currently is and will always be a disaster for the health of this country.
It’s a great subsidy to low wage employers. But that’s another reason to scrap it.
But if you don’t make regular appointments (for them to cancel, I pressume) they take you off their books! I didn’t book in for a while and I was removed. No warning, no reminders. No other dentists taking new patients in the area, either. My fault, I suppose, but I really didn’t fancy jumping through all the new Rona hoops, and because I didn’t have any issues with my teeth to actually need an appointment.
How many NHS doctors and dentists scoop up their fat salaries and then go off to treat private patients for yet more money?? I think we should be told.
I pay a modest sum per month for dental insurance. This entitles me to twice-yearlt check-ups, followed by prompt treatment if required. I pay for the treatment, but NHS treatment -when you can get it – is not free either.
My excellent dentist only stopped work at the beginning of the bollox, when the government cretins stopped everything. He’s great – and he only wears a muzzle because ‘if we didn’t, they’d shut us down.’
Private care may cost less than you think. Do investigate the possibility.
See my reply to Fingerache Philip above, well worth it in the long run.
Free decent coffee in Reception, invited to bring my own CDs to play during procedures, told a double vodka immediately prior to treatment would be no problem despite the probability of local anaesthetic being used. What’s not to like ?
And there is never a delay where you have to sit in a waiting room for 45 minutes. My private dentist (a plan for a few quid per month) has done all procedures throughout and is a sceptic. You get a totally different service when you are not a captive (NHS) customer.
Yes my then dentist gave up NHS work long ago (80’s, 90’s) Going private is more expensive but the quality of work is far higher, they can do things that are forbidden on the NHS for example resin fillings rather than amalgam which last a lot longer, so in the long term it’s not really that expensive (I’ve had NHS fillings that only lasted months before falling out)
I must say that changing my diet greatly improved my teeth, no more of that horrid scraping with the ultrasonic thing that blows the top of my head off
I just got booted off their register.
Now I get to pay 5x for the same treatment by the same guy, great!
Was recently sent a letter stating that I should contact my local MP (coincidently the MP for dentistry (Jo “might as well be a blue rosette on a broom stick” Churchill) as the poor dentist was being forced to see more NHS patients than he was comfortable with for safety during Covid with the extra cleaning time required and the costs to triple mask, so unless they rolled back their plans he would have to lose some NHS patients.
Amazingly, he has a place for me as a private patient….
I read about it in the BFP. Sad. Seemed to be a good practise, I used to take patients there when I was a volunteer driver for community transport.
Do you come to SITP? We are a good bunch!
SITP? Singing In The Park? Sorry, not familiar, reasonable singer though
Google reveals ‘Sceptics in the pub’ now you’re talking!
I didn’t rate them tbh, but that’s the NHS best I can tell, lies, mistakes, being patronising and the occasional misdiagnosis. Be interesting to compare the £££ deluxe service (proving you aren’t secretly my dentist in disguise that is).
“Gotten” -what sort of English is that?
American – you know, the lot from whom we are permanently divided by a common language!
Tudor English, as used by Shakespeare, exported to North America via the Pilgrim Fathers, which has undergone fewer linguistic, grammatical & vowel sound changes than British English.
Studied linguistics as part of my degree…
Always preferred the “Fall” rather than Autumn.
‘Garbage’, ‘rubbish’, ‘trash’ which many think are interchangeable but which historically indicate which part of the household hold the detritus came from. All three remain applicable to fergusons models however.
In many ways American is a purer form of English than our own. Same goes for Quebecois and metropolitan French.
I haven’t used an NHS dentist in well over 20 years because they are uniformly dreadful. My current dentist only sees the youngest in the fam on the NHS, (a privilege extended to all private patients, otherwise NHS treatment is done by the YTS dentist). Even then I have to stop him smearing their teeth in fluoride paste, which leads to weeks of intermittent nosebleeds.
Money buys you tolerance and that’s priceless so when I come in with my cray-cray ideas like fluoride free toothpaste and no maintenance x-rays, he puts up with me. He’s also v generous with the NOS.
Shortly after the first lockdowns were announced in March last year I was out on my daily bicycle ride when I came off quite badly – cuts, grazes and bruises down one side where I slid along the wet road into the curb – had a cycle helmet on but unfortunately still hit the side of my face – developed a big black eye and suffered a cracked tooth which eventually broke off a couple of days later. Everything healed up fine but because of all the restrictions and lockdowns I’ve had to wait until recently to even speak to a dental practice about my broken tooth never mind get to see an actual dentist … surprise, surprise there are very long waiting lists everywhere and even if you can get an appointment they want you to go through all the covid palarva before they book you in.
I have been to a dentist twice. I am 50. I mean twice in my entire life. Both times I got a filling. I saw it as a scam as soon as I had that second filling. Never had tooth ache. Not lost any teeth. Teeth still white. Dentists are as likely to be bent as car mechnics.
“—waiting lists have GOTTEN so long–” Grrrrr!!
The UK is at the point were it should import some Indian street dentists.
As with its Covid only Health Service and that policy’s consequences, it is the only country in the world that has these problems in such a size, and that should really make people wonder and revolt.
A few years ago I was travelling through the Atlas mountains and was shocked by the poor state of dental health I saw there. Many youngish people were already virtually toothless. I thanked my lucky stars for have been born in Britain. I wonder if any future grandchildren will be able to feel the same way.
However I must add that when teaching in an inner city school, I noticed from the bad breath of many of the pupils that general dental hygiene was not practiced religiously by everyone and exhortations to “clean your teeth morning and night” were usually met with blank stares.
I use a Denplan Dentist. Regular relaxed check ups and hygienist visits. Never had a problem getting a short notice appt if required.
My wife uses an NHS dentist. As soon as she phones them, the attitude is one of : ‘I guess we COULD see you, as a special favour’.
Tomorrow? I’m in pain.
Dear lord no! There’s a three week wait for a triage appointment.
If there was a similar scheme as Denplan for GP consultations, I’d sign up to it. I’m utterly sick of having to approach the NHS as if being invited to touch the garment of a Saint.
Many years ago my wife and I used Denplan, where your policy payment is assessed by the dentist and covers most, but not all, problems. As we had few it was far cheaper to change to another private dentist and pay as necessary. There were no NHS dentists locally.
Now in Shropshire we are both NHS, very high quality and no waiting lists. Shut for a few months during the pandemic although open for emergencies.
It is a postcode lottery.
More than just a postcode lottery though, I’ve had some really good dentists but they all took early retirement and the ones that took over the practice weren’t nearly so good
Corona cold #7 is being used to mask the collapse of all our public services by restricting them to the minimum