Leatherhead Matters

NHS World Beating Record. Kills 1 Patient Every Hour

April 28, 2008 · 2 Comments

NHS 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

Categories: Death · Health · NHS · Targets
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2 responses so far ↓

  • nhsiskillingus // May 1, 2008 at 7:24 pm | Reply

    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 | Reply

    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.

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