25,000 infected in hospital
One in six on wards caught coronavirus while being treated for other illnesses
MORE than 25,000 patients have caught coronavirus in hospital since the second wave of the pandemic began in September.
One in six Covid-19 patients in NHS hospitals in England were infected while being treated for other conditions, according to internal Health Service figures.
So far this month, 5,684 Covid-positive inpatients out of 44,315 – about one in eight – were infected after being admitted death. Susan Colborne, 52, for other conditions. claims Pamela Clifford would be
An intensive care consultant in alive today if Royal Stoke Hospital the Midlands said that he took a had delayed her cancer surgery. ‘snapshot’ of all the patients in his The 72-year-old oesophageal cancer unit on one day last month and sufferer had health complications found that 40 per cent of them had that put her at risk of Covidbeen infected in hospital. 19, Mrs Colborne said. The hospital
A specialist Covid nurse treating has launched an investigation. people at home said many of her Sage, the Government’s scientific patients had contracted the virus advisory group, highlighted in hospital and were re-admitted the problem last month. when their conditions worsened. ‘It can be clearly seen that the
The nurse said one elderly lady, proportion of infections that were originally admitted after breaking acquired in hospital steadily a rib in a fall, was now critically ill increased throughout October and and had passed the virus on to two November,’ its pandemic modelling close relatives while at home. sub-group noted.
And a daughter has lodged an An NHS spokesman claimed that official complaint over her mother’s in-hospital infections have now fallen to 7.7 per cent. He added: ‘High community infections and crowded hospitals – in some cases with over half their beds occupied with Covid patients – increases the risk, so the overriding goal has to be to bring community transmission back under control.’
Separate figures showed that the majority of coronavirus deaths are still among the elderly.
Jason Oke, from Oxford university’s Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, found the median age at which people had died from Covid19 in October was 82.4.
He said this has barely changed, and now stands at 82.3 across the pandemic. The median age for all other causes of death since March is 81.4.
Figures from the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre show that the age of patients needing intensive care for Covid has also increased.
The median figure has risen from 59 in the first wave to 62 for the period from September.
Dr Oke said: ‘The figures suggest that if the Government meets its target of offering a vaccine to everyone over 70 by mid-February, we should expect a huge dent in the
‘Huge dent in the numbers dying’
numbers of people dying.’ The Medical Research Council also confirmed that the chances of surviving the disease have significantly improved, thanks to a wider range of treatments.
It estimates the proportion of people infected who will die has fallen from 1.3 per cent in the first wave to 0.94 per cent.