More than half of Covid hospital patients ‘only tested positive after admission’
More than half of Covid hospitalisations are of patients who only tested positive after they were admitted, it has been reported.
Leaked data of all NHS trusts in England suggests statistics for the virus could be overstating the pressures faced by the health service.
It means many patients categorised as Covid patients may have actually been admitted with other ailments, with the virus detected through routine testing.
As of last Thursday, 44% of patients classed as being hospitalised with coronavirus has tested positive by the time they arrived at hospital, according to data seen by the Telegraph.
A further 43% tested positive within two days of admission, while 13% were diagnosed in the days and weeks that followed.
Prof Carl Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford, has urged the Government to publish clearer data.
He called on the Department of Health to specify whether Covid was the primary reason for people being admitted so that people aren’t painted a misleading picture.
Professor Heneghan added: ‘When people hear about hospitalisations with Covid, they will assume that Covid is the likely cause, but this data shows something quite different – this is about Covid being detected after tests were looking for it.’
The figures from from NHS daily situation reports, collected by every hospital trust in England.
After hearing of the leak, Commons science and technology select committee chairman Greg Clark said he would write to Health Secretary Sajid Javid to ask for a regular breakdown to be shared with the public.
He added: ‘If hospitalisations from Covid are a key determinant of how concerned we should be, and how quickly restrictions should be lifted, it’s important that the data is not presented in a way that could lead to the wrong conclusions being drawn.’
One NHS data expert added: ‘People are worried and scared and not really understanding the true picture – that is what I find despicable.’
A spokesman for the health service said: ‘Many patients are admitted to hospital because of their Covid symptoms and complications, which are then confirmed with a post-admission Covid test, and for others they may initially be presymptomatic or asymptomatic.’
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