Outbreaks in city’s hospitals - no one will say how many

VIRUS HAS BEEN CAUGHT ON THE WARDS BUT NO CONFIRMATION ON NUMBER OF PEOPLE INFECTED

A NUMBER of coronavirus outbreaks have been reported in Leicester’s hospitals during the pandemic, but no NHS organisation can confirm how many.

According to a recent paper on the situation at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, there have been a number of outbreaks, where patients have caught Covid-19 during their stay in hospital.

Public Health England define these infections as an “outbreak” if two or more people have caught it during their time in hospital.

The Mercury has contacted four different NHS organisations to ask for the exact number of people affected. Public Health England referred us to NHS England, which said it could not help, and passed us on to NHS Digital.

However, NHS Digital said it did not hold the figures - and suggested we contacted Public Health England. We then approached Public Health England for a second time, which said it could not release the exact data.

University Hospitals of Leicester, which runs Leicester Royal Infirmary, the General and Glenfield Hospital, said it does not report on the total number of outbreaks within the trust.

However, it said the rate of hospitalacquired infections with the trust, termed the “nosocomial Covid rate”, was 9 per cent, which is a figure that also featured in the report, and is calculated based on a small patient population who have been on wards for more than 14 days.

Patients are tested on admission and then repeatedly throughout their stay – any patients who test positive from day 14 (the covid incubation period) onwards would be counted as a hospital-acquired infection.

Fluctuation in the number of patients who are on the city hospitals’ wards also impacts on the overall percentage.

While the same rates at other trusts are not available to make a comparison, the Mercury understands the outbreaks that have been reported were minimal and contained.

A spokesperson for UHL said: “Patient and staff safety is our top priority and we continue to take the appropriate precautions, in line with national guidance, to help prevent hospitalacquired infections across our hospitals. Thanks to strong staff engagement, effective infection control measures, and the public respect of our hospital sites, we have managed to ensure that Covid transmission at our hospitals has remained low throughout the pandemic, despite the many challenges that a fast-spreading virus like Covid presents.”

Where community transmission of Covid-19 is high, the rate of infection in hospitals also increases but Leicester’s has remained lower than in some other areas.

Leicester’s high infection rate within the community does not appear to have transferred to hospital wards.

A UHL spokesperson said: “There are a number of measures in place such as enhanced infection prevention and control guidance, PPE and different pathways for Covid positive and Covid negative patients.

“It’s also vitally important the public continue to follow government guidelines to reduce the transmission rate within our communities.”

Patients who present at Leicester’s hospitals are triaged before being admitted. Whether or not they have symptoms determines which areas of the hospital they will be treated in with many areas, like the emergency department, effectively split in two to ensure patients who are Covid-free don’t encounter those who may have the virus.

The trust also now has lateral flow tests to allow rapid result testing.

Acting chief executive Rebecca Brown told UHL board members at its December meeting: “Once we’ve rolled out the testing programme completely, it will allow all of our staff to be tested twice a week for Covid.

“The numbers we are getting back who have tested positive are small, so that’s a really encouraging sign.

“We’ve been very very good at keeping infection rates in the hospitals down throughout.”