Ten times as many elderly patients are killed by the hospital superbug Clostridium difficile in the UK than in any other country, a medical expert has claimed.
Around 6,500 people die of C. difficile in British hospitals every year – a rate of one an hour – and the infection kills four times more people than MRSA.
Professor Richard James, of Nottingham University’s Institute of Infections, Immunity and Inflammation. “If you look at the over-65s, we have more cases there, and therefore more deaths in that age-group than any country in the world by a factor of 10.”
Read more on this story in The Independent
2 responses so far ↓
nhsiskillingus // May 1, 2008 at 7:24 pm |
At least our service is “free at the point of service”. The NHS is an equal opportunity killer of patients. Unless of course you are rich, went to a BUPA hospital, and didn’t die. Thank God we don’t have a two tiered system.
Mike // May 18, 2008 at 12:04 pm |
You can add my dad as another NHS Statistic of C Diff. He died yesterday 17 May 2008 – after over 25 days in Warrington Hospital.
Poor basic care & humane treatment contributed to his death, along with no food & liquids for days.
You want anymore information – just email me, as my family logged a formal complaint – 6 days before his death. But now they want his written consent – on the day of his death.