42 NHS trusts accused of not revealing figures on hospital-acquired Covid infections, deaths

SOME hospital trusts in Bedford, Luton, Leeds, and northwest London have been criticised for not providing data about how many patients died of Covid-19 after contracting the virus while in hospital.

Bedford hospital NHS trust, Leeds teaching hospitals NHS trust, London north-west university healthcare NHS trust, and Luton and Dunstable University hospital NHS foundation trust were among 26 trusts that did not reveal information about how many patients became infected with the coronavirus.

Covid-19 has claimed nearly 128,000 lives in Britain, the fifth-highest official death toll in the world.

The Patients Association, doctors’ groups, and campaign group Transparency International criticised about 42 NHS trusts in the country for not complying fully with freedom of information requests relating to queries about how many patients died after catching Covid on their wards.

“Hospitals are displaying ‘unwarranted secrecy’,” the Patients Association was quoted as saying in the Guardian. “We expect openness and transparency from the NHS, particularly about such important matters as patient deaths arising from hospital-acquired infections.”

Campaign group Transparency International UK said the 42 trusts displayed “an overly casual approach to the law”.

“Whether it’s about Covid contracts or the contraction of Covid in hospitals, learning from our recent experience requires public bodies to recognise its right to know, not their right to conceal,” a spokesperson of Transparency International UK said.

Information from 81 of the 126 trusts from which figures were sought showed that up to 8,700 patients lost their lives after probably or definitely becoming infected during the pandemic while in hospital for surgery or other treatment, The Guardian reported.

Out of 42 NHS trusts, 26 reportedly did not provide any figures at all to the freedom of information request, despite their legal obligation to do so and the rest 16 replied but did not give exact figures on how many patients died after contracting Covid in hospital. Many claimed that they did not have figures for nosocomial (originating in a hospital) deaths while some claimed that it would take too long and cost too much to supply the figures.

The revelation comes as prime minister Boris Johnson's former top adviser and Brexit architect Dominic Cummings told MPs on Wednesday (26) that the government failed the public by not having adequate planning in place for the coronavirus pandemic.

"The truth is that senior ministers, senior officials, senior advisers like me fell disastrously short of the standards that the public has a right to expect of its government in a crisis like this," Cummings told a parliamentary committee.