Since 1999, more than 111,000 Covid-infected patients died at NHS hospitals after contracting the disease while also being treated for other diseases.
Freedom of Information data was obtained from NHS trusts across England and revealed that 11688 people who died after being tested positive for Covid virus probably contracted the virus in those hospitals.
This was responsible for 1 in 8 Covid-related deaths at hospitals.
More than 11,000 patients who died in hospital after testing positive for Covid probably caught the virus there, according to Freedom of Information data from NHS trusts in England
Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative chairman of the health select committee, told The Daily Telegraph: ‘These numbers are truly shocking.
‘Hospital infections have been the deadliest silent killer of the pandemic…it surely strengthens the case for mandatory vaccination for frontline healthcare staff.’
University Hospitals Birmingham has released figures that show 484 deaths among patients suspected to have been infected by the virus during the pandemic.
But the hospital trust said it was one of the ‘largest’ in the country and had ‘treated over 18,000 Covid-19 patients…significantly more than any other hospital trust’.
At four NHS Trusts with acute care, nearly a quarter (25%) of the patients who died were afflicted by the virus while they were in hospitals.
Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative chairman of the health select committee, told The Daily Telegraph: ‘These numbers are truly shocking’
One in five of 34 trusts reported that one-fifth of patients had contracted the disease in their care after they had performed a Covid test.
213 people died at the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust after they caught Covid from its wards. This account for a third of its Covid deaths.
The Countess of Chester said Covid patients made up ‘more than 70 per cent of [its] general and acute beds at one point’ meaning it was ‘one of the most seriously affected trusts in the North of England’.
Barbara Keeley, the Labour MP and a member of the health select committee, told The Daily Telegraph: ‘We have to learn the lessons so that scandals like this don’t happen again.’
An NHS spokesman said: ‘Covid-19 hospital infection rates account for less than one per cent of all cases since the pandemic began and cases have reduced significantly since the NHS vaccination rollout.’