The proportion of patients being treated for Covid-19 who caught the virus in hospital has risen sharply amid reports of A&E overcrowding and shortcomings in testing, according to the Times.
Nearly one in five Covid patients treated in English hospitals in November are believed to have caught the virus after being admitted, up from one in 10 in August. At one trust the rate was 67%.
An analysis of patients who tested positive more than seven days after they arrived — a measure statisticians use to estimate hospital-acquired infections — suggests 7,216 patients caught the virus in hospital wards last month.
The findings on hospital transmission come as DAUK prepares to launch legal action against the government for failing to protect staff with adequate PPE. The article notes how we wrote to the health secretary, Matt Hancock:
“We have lost hundreds of our colleagues. Their families are owed explanations as to what happened and how as a nation we can learn from their sacrifice.”
More than 600 NHS staff and care workers have died with Covid-19. They include Dr Krishnan Subramanian, 46, an anaesthetist who died at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester last month.
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The article can be found at: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/busy-hospitals-are-becoming-a-covid-breeding-ground-once-again-zv9v3csg7 (paywall)
