Derby Telegraph

105 deaths from Covid caught at two local hospitals

MOST HAPPENED AT THE PEAK OF PANDEMIC AT DERBY AND BURTON NHS TRUST SITES

- By RICHARD CASTLE richard.castle@reachplc.com @richardcas­tle85

SCORES of patients have died after catching Covid-19 at hospitals run by Burton and Derby’s NHS trust, it has been revealed.

New stats show the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust has recorded 105 hospital-acquired Covid deaths since March last year.

The trust runs facilities including Burton’s Queen’s Hospital and Royal Derby Hospital.

The majority happened between November and January, during the latest peak of the pandemic.

Huge numbers of Covid-positive inpatients were being treated in the trust’s hospitals at that point.

One one day alone in January, the trust was treating 524 patients who had coronaviru­s.

A patient is considered to have definitely contracted the virus in hospital if they test positive for the first time at least 15 days after being admitted. A total of 1,628 patients have now died with Covid-19 in the trust’s hospitals since the pandemic began.

Cathy Winfield, executive chief nurse, said: “We have worked tirelessly over the last year to make our hospitals as safe as possible by introducin­g a number of strict infection prevention and control measures to help limit the spread of Covid-19.

“These have included providing RediRooms in our assessment units to keep patients who are awaiting

We have worked tirelessly over the last year to make our hospitals as safe as possible. Cathy Winfield

the results of a Covid-19 test separate from other patients, and requiring all patients who attend A&E to report to a patient receiving area first, so that they can be screened for Covid-19 before then being admitted onto one of our pathways, based on their results.

“Despite this, like the vast majority of other NHS Trusts nationally, we have still seen a rise in nosocomial infections (those originatin­g in hospital) across our hospitals that have sadly led to a small number of patients losing their lives after contractin­g the virus.

“Losing any patient in this way is an absolute tragedy and I’d like to

express my sincere condolence­s to all of the families who have lost loved ones to this horrible virus.

“Thankfully, we are now starting to see far fewer instances of nosocomial infections in our hospitals, as the prevalence of Covid-19 has started to decrease in our communitie­s.

“It is only right that we are as open and transparen­t as possible about the effect of nosocomial infections in our hospitals however, and we are currently in the process of investigat­ing each of these incidents, in line with emerging national guidance, so that we can continue to learn and make changes where this is necessary.”

Other infection prevention and control measures introduced by staff include:

■ Patient-facing staff being provided with lateral flow self-testing kits to test themselves at home twice a week

■ Strict visiting restrictio­ns

■ Social distancing measures on site, including one-way stairwells and keeping left in corridors

■ Mandatory mask wearing on site for all staff, patients and visitors

University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust was formed on July 1, 2018 to bring together our five hospitals - Royal Derby Hospital, Burton’s Queen’s Hospital, Sir Robert Peel Community Hospital in Tamworth, Samuel Johnson Community Hospital in Lichfield and London Road Community Hospital in Derby.

The trust said it was unable to provide a breakdown of how many hospital-acquired Covid deaths there had been in each facility.

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