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More than a fifth of the Covid deaths at some hospitals occurred after patients caught infections on wards, The Telegraph can disclose.
Freedom of Information requests to hospital trusts around the country found that 3,264 people who caught Covid in hospital have died since March last year, with nine organisations recording that more than 100 patients had lost their lives after contracting the virus in their care.
Bereaved families said that the number of people who died as a result of catching the virus when they were being treated for other illnesses must be part of any future inquiry into the handling of the pandemic. The disclosure is likely to raise questions about whether infection control measures are adequate.
On Wednesday night, Barbara Keeley MP, member of the Health and Social Care Select Committee, said that it was “unacceptable” that so many people had died after catching the deadly virus in hospital. “Every Covid-19 death is a tragedy, and it is unacceptable that more than 3,000 people have now died from Covid-19 infections they acquired in hospital," she said.
The figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act include patient deaths among both “probable” cases – those who first tested positive for the virus between eight and 14 days after they were admitted to hospital – and “definite” cases – those with a positive test 15 days or more after admission.
At Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, 128 patients who were suspected to or definitely caught Covid while in hospital died – equivalent to 24 per cent of the total Covid deaths at the Trust.
It was followed by Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Trust, where coronavirus infections caught in hospital accounted for 21 and 20 per cent of the organisations’ respective Covid deaths.
University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust reported the highest number of deaths. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 222 patients – both probable and definite cases – have died with Covid after catching the virus in hospital. The trust also treated a high number of Covid patients overall, and 16% of their Covid deaths were among patients who died after likely catching covid on the wards.
A spokesperson for the Trust said that community transmission levels in their area had been “consistently higher” than the national average throughout the pandemic and infections were known to increase in line with this. They said that patient and staff safety was a “top priority” during the pandemic.
Less than half of NHS trusts responded so the true number of patients who died after catching Covid at the country’s hospitals could be much higher.
Official figures show that more than 40,000 patients caught Covid, or were suspected to, while in hospital being treated for other conditions. At the height of the second wave in January more than 3,000 patients a week were catching the virus in hospital. The latest figures show this has dropped to just over 200 patients a week.
An NHS England spokesperson said that “hospitals implement robust infection control measures in line with the guidance from Public Health England and other UK-wide guidance”.
'We thought he was safe, and he just wasn’t': Families reveal 'inadequate' infection controls
When Matt Pears was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, his family felt hopeful that he would recover.
Only in his late 40s, Mr Pears had been in good health before discovering he had cancer and the prognosis seemed to be good.
But after he was admitted as an inpatient for intensive chemotherapy in the spring, his family became concerned. A potentially deadly virus was sweeping the country and they feared he might be vulnerable.
In April, the family were told that Mr Pears had caught Covid-19 and by the middle of May, he had died.
“Obviously he was terrified, he was very frightened and he was very angry”, said Mrs Edmunds, Mr Pears's sister. “We thought he was in the best place, we thought he was safe, and he just wasn’t.”
Looking back, his sister said that whilst the family are full of praise for the medical staff who treated Mr Pears, they also feel “angry” that he caught the virus in hospital.
Mr Pears was treated at the Royal Derby Hospital and whilst he was there, both he and his family had concerns, believing that infection control measures were “inadequate”.
“The PPE was a huge issue”, said Mrs Edmunds. “I remember my brother saying to me on the phone: 'people are coming out onto his ward, without PPE'. They were coming from other wards as well and coming to see him.”
Mrs Edmunds said that she felt the Government had “let down” people who went into hospital for other illnesses and then caught Covid-19.
It is a distressing story, but not unfamiliar.
An investigation by The Telegraph has found that more than 3,000 people have died after catching coronavirus in hospital when they were being treated for other conditions.
Official figures show there have been more than 40,600 patients who caught Covid while in hospital being treated for an unrelated illness, but this data has only been published since August and does not include the number of patients who subsequently died.
An NHS respiratory consultant who wished to remain anonymous said he had seen vulnerable respiratory patients mistakenly being put on Covid wards because their symptoms were similar to Covid, and later dying after catching the virus.
“When these patients died it was especially distressing as we knew their infection was acquired in hospital,” he said. “I kept a record at first, and I got to around 15 patients who this happened to at the Trust where I was working during the first wave of the pandemic.”
A number of trusts said in their FOI responses that they could not be certain Covid was the cause of death.
Elaine Williams-Bird lost her brother, Ian Williams, last October after he caught Covid on the respiratory ward of Doncaster Royal Infirmary while being treated for pneumonia.
The 56-year-old, who had a long-term respiratory condition, was admitted on Sept 23 and put on a respiratory ward which his family feared was “fast becoming a Covid ward”. They were told he had Covid two days before he died.
During the first wave of the pandemic and during the national lockdown, Mr Williams’s daughter, who lived with and cared for him, was scrupulous about following the regulations and took every precaution to protect her father from Covid.
Ms Williams-Bird said that she “finds it hard to bear that Ian contracted Covid when he was in hospital”.
“We will never know how much more time he might have had.”
In a letter to Ms Williams-Bird the hospital said that the number of Covid patients being admitted meant there was a “tipping point” when the respiratory ward Mr Williams was placed in became a designated Covid ward. The remaining patients who didn’t have the virus were moved elsewhere.
All the hospitals said they had followed national infection control guidance.
Dr Magnus Harrison, executive medical director at University Hospitals of Derby and Burton, said that their “staff strictly follow Public Health England guidance on PPE and infection prevention and control measures”.
Dr Ken Agwuh, director of Infection, Prevention and Control and Consultant Microbiologist at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals, said: “While Covid and non-Covid patients may be cared for within the same area they are never nursed in the same enclosed bays and – throughout the pandemic – we have followed national guidance to ensure we deliver care as safely as possible.”
This story was updated to reflect the proportion of patients at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust who died after likely catching Covid.
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