A Salford Star reader was absolutely furious when he received a Freedom of Information response from Northern Care Alliance NHS Group, which has Salford Royal Hospital under its wing.
He asked how many people in Salford had died of COVID-19 between March and December last year, and who didn't have underlying health conditions. The response from the Trust was...
"The total number of patients who have died with a positive COVID-19 test within 28 days of their death with no previous existing health conditions between March 2020 and 8th December 2020 at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust is <10..."
That is, less than ten out of 335 COVID deaths in total at the hospital during that period, or around 3%.
"How many ordinarily healthy people have we lost due to suicides during this period caused by the stress of lost jobs, businesses, social contact or just fear?" our reader asked "This is appalling and surely we need answers as to why our leaders are pushing COVID down our throats when it isn't the only thing causing deaths and hardship. We need to seriously start demanding answers as right now the 'cure' seems to far worse than the disease..."
The Salford Star asked for an explanation from Dr Muna Abdel Aziz, Director of Public Health for Salford, who said...
"Nationally and locally, the data shows that the majority of deaths due to COVID have unfortunately been among people with pre-existing health conditions and/or older age or other lifestyle factors.
"This is why there has been such focus on shielding, protecting those who are extremely clinically vulnerable, and the priority given for the vaccine" she explained "In addition in Salford, we have rolled out the individual risk assessments and the free COVID risk health checks for people who may not know they are at higher risk."
For 2020 in England and Wales, there were 50,292 hospital deaths with an underlying cause of COVID-19 on the death certificate, 5,308 (10.6%) of these had no pre-existing conditions - the most prevalent pre-existing condition for hospital COVD deaths were diabetes (24.0%), hypertensive disease (22.3%) and chronic lower respiratory diseases (20.2%).
Referring to the local data, Dr Aziz adds "It is very difficult to compare small numbers and different methodologies across different areas and hospitals. They will also not be able to differentiate between those who died with or from COVID-19. The ONS data will be more accurate as they are relying on death certificates where COVID is recorded; whereas hospitals will report the number of deaths of patients with a positive test in the last 28 days and they can potentially reference pre-existing health conditions that are not noted on the death certificate.
"Also, some hospitals like Salford Royal have particular specialisms meaning they are more likely to have admitted more complex patients, and so a larger proportion could be expected to have underlying health conditions" she explains, urging people with existing conditions to get a vaccine, both first and second doses.
"We brief out each week that people should contact their GP to let them know if they test positive for people with pre-existing health conditions or who are over 50 years old" she adds "This is life-saving even when they could be feeling quite well because we have seen people can get much worse very quickly.
"Your GP can arrange to loan you a small device over your finger (called a pulse oximeter) to monitor your blood oxygen levels at home" she says "The oxygen level in your blood can become very low without you feeling anything. So it is an early warning to call 999 and this small device can save your life."
The other point to note about the data is that, while less than ten healthy people may have died with COVID at Salford Royal Hospital, it doesn't state how many healthy people have long COVID or have been seriously ill from the disease.
The Freedom of Information response also revealed the total number of patients who have died with a positive COVID-19 test within 28 days of their death with no previous existing health conditions for other local hospitals in the date range March until 8th December...
Fairfield General Hospital and Rochdale Infirmary – 12 patients
Royal Oldham Hospital – 16 patients
North Manchester General Hospital – 88 patients.
Dr Aziz puts out a weekly public message for Salford residents - to read it click here
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