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A hospital where there was a sudden spike in Covid-19 deaths in the fall was unable to screen all new emergency patients at the time of admission, the Telegraph may reveal.
The Tameside Hospital in Greater Manchester admitted Jean Hale, 79, as an emergency patient in June and admitted her to a ward with Covid-19 patients without cleaning it first.
At that point in the pandemic, NHS hospitals had been instructed to test all “non-elective” patients who required an overnight stay for coronavirus.
Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust accounted for a third of the 52 deaths from Covid-19 in England’s hospitals in the week to September 10. It reported 18 deaths at the hospital, up from six the previous week.
Meanwhile, this week’s Telegraph analysis found that at least 100 of its 453 coronavirus patients since early August – equivalent to 22 percent – contracted the disease while in hospital.
Sources have blamed the high number of deaths at the hospital on high rates of Covid-19 infections, as well as demographic factors, and have insisted that the hospital has rigorous infection controls.
However, it appears that not all the rules were followed.
In a letter sent in April, and signed by National Medical Director Stephen Powys, he told NHS staff: “To further support the effective management of Covid-19 in healthcare settings, therefore, we now ask you to extend testing to all selective patients admitted to your organizations who require an overnight bed. This includes asymptomatic patients. “
Additional guidance issued in June indicated that hospitals should test “all patients on emergency admission, whether or not they have symptoms.”
However, Ms. Hale spent five days in the hospital without being tested for the coronavirus, says her daughter Tracy Hale.
She was given a bed in Ward 42, along with coronavirus patients, and was released when staff phoned Tracy to warn her that Jean was in danger of contracting the disease.
Ms. Hale returned to the hospital later the same day, at which point she tested positive for Covid. Later he died.
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