Read on Twitter
1/ ***BREAKING***
I have a leak from the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Hospital Trust @RDEhospitals which illustrates how the political suppression of data is harming healthcare workers in the UK.
In November last year @RDEhospitals had 18 ward outbreaks.
I have a leak from the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Hospital Trust @RDEhospitals which illustrates how the political suppression of data is harming healthcare workers in the UK.
In November last year @RDEhospitals had 18 ward outbreaks.
2/ They sent an infection control team to the neighbouring NHS Hospital Trust, Derriford, in Plymouth, which has a better record of preventing staff infection.
3/ Since records began in April, @RDEhospitals has been looking after fewer COVID19 patients and yet has had much more staff sickness than Derriford, not just percentage-wise, but in absolute terms: fewer absolute numbers of covid patients at @RDEhospitals, greater absolute…
4/ …numbers of staff infections. This information is held on a top secret spreadsheet of staff infections in NHS hospital trusts across SW England. The data is not pubicly available or even to researchers.
5/ The team came back from Derriford and changed @RDEhospitals to FFP3 respirators in red zones and changed the window latches so they could open more - so, airborne precautions which are above those prescribed by PHE for those locations.
6/ Result? Dramatic reduction in staff infections at the RD+E between November and January after the new measures had been implemented. In fact, a reduction to near zero. https://twitter.com/drrobporter/status/1359869887200579589
7/ This information has been kept secret, evidently because it is too politically sensitive to release it. I note Dr Porter, senior infection control doctor at @RDEHospitals, cites the vaccinations, but not improved airborne precautions as contributory factors.
8/ THIS CONCEALMENT OF DATA, WHICH IS HAPPENING ALL OVER THE UK, COSTS HEALTHCARE WORKER LIVES. It means that lessons hard learned with the health and lives of HCWs are not being shared and have to be relearned in each location. This is a scandal.
9/ Dr Tom Lawton has compiled a league table of ALL nosocomial infection data which is available in its raw state (NB not just staff sickness data), showing an extraordinary difference from best to worst: https://twitter.com/LawtonTri/status/1357669882536620033
10/ This is where his data comes from, at least for Scotland https://twitter.com/LawtonTri/status/1359524010825027584
11/ The scandal gets worse. @PHE_uk and @LSHTM produced a briefing paper for SAGE, published Feb 12th, which states:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phe-and-lshtm-the-contribution-of-nosocomial-infections-to-the-first-wave-28-january-2021
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phe-and-lshtm-the-contribution-of-nosocomial-infections-to-the-first-wave-28-january-2021
12/ Either these investigators were not provided with the secret staff infections spreadsheet from SW England (and no doubt these exist for elsewhere too), or they ignored it. Either way, there is a big coverup here, which is costing HCW lives and welfare.
13/ This is what our lives as healthcare workers are worth. They can be sacrificed to provide cover for politicians and our healthcare leaders who don't want to admit their egregious failures to keep us safe, or that #CovidIsAirborne, because the implications are too inconvenient
14/ People may legitimately wonder how I got hold of this information. From 1996 to 2012, I was a GP in Devon. This comes from a personal contact who is a senior clinician, who is rightly appalled by this coverup.
16/ @RDEHospitals needs to be asked about its staff infection data and NHS England about staff infection data generally and why this data is not being acted on urgently and lessons shared.\\...\\Ping @DrLindaDykes @Linzofm87 @doctorcaldwell @drphilhammond @doctor_oxford Please RT.
@OutbreakJake @invadingpirate @drrobporter your comments? Why is staff infection data not freely available? Any ideas?
