Brit Doctors Lie on Death Certificates

In a scathing report in today's Daily Mail, British doctors and hospitals are accused of not recording the cause of death on certificates when a hospital-acquired infection is to blame.

Specifically, the true toll from hospital-acquired MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and C. diff (Clostridium difficile) bacteria is being hidden.

Since the prevalence of bacteria is a direct reflection on general cleanliness and sterilization processes in medical facilities, it's not surprising that there would be a reluctance to document high levels of bacterial infections, in particular, those resulting in deaths.

The Government says that there were 6,381 cases of MRSA in England last year, although some experts believe it could be nearer to 100,000. The latest figures from the Health Protection Agency and the British Paediatric Surveillance Unit show that 74 cases involved children, three-quarters of them babies of less than a year old. It is not known how many of them died.

Data from the National Office of Statistics shows that deaths from MRSA rose from 51 in 1993 to 1,629 in 2005. But the startling totals are likely to be the tip of the iceberg.

Graham Tanner, chairman of the National Concern for Healthcare Infections, has warned there is 'vast underreporting' of C. diff and MRSA. The number of hospital-acquired infections in England alone is, according to his organisation, really 230,000 a year, with an average mortality rate of 15 per cent.

Only this week, a worried doctor told me that MRSA and C. diff is rife in London's major teaching hospitals. He said that of 16 patients in a single ward at one hospital 'four have C. diff and three have MRSA, and that is typical of the situation in every ward'.

Meanwhile, a funeral director in the North of England went further. He estimated that four in five of all elderly hospital patients dying in his seaside town near Blackpool have MRSA or C. diff.

Tony Field, the chairman of MRSA Support UK - which advises hundreds of families who have lost loved ones - believes these accounts, although they are anecdotal. "By law, the doctors and pathologists should be putting down if a hospital infection is a primary or a secondary cause of death. We are hearing from family after family that the death certificates are not mentioning the truth, so obviously the real figure is covered up."

Graziella Kontowsky, founder of a similar support organisation, C. Diff Support UK, agrees. 'I used to be a nurse and there is a pattern if you look at the dead patients' notes. With C. diff the white blood count goes up sky high and then the kidneys of the patient pack up. You can tell it is a sudden infection which developed in hospital, but the death certificate from the hospital doctor or pathologist will just state kidney failure.'

A top microbiologist and MRSA expert, Professor Hugh Pennington, said that some people are so afraid of infection that they completely avoid going to the hospital and try to save money for private treatment.

Agreed, the evidence in the article is anecdotal and testimonial, yet it is convincing. It's quite logical to believe that at least some NHS (National Health Service) hospitals are filthy enough to cause patients to become infected and die. Equally important is the strong motivation for medical professionals to want to hide the fact.

Companion posts at Socglory.com and The Jawa Report.


[Update 01/05/08]

In another report related to allegations of poor hygiene and lack of cleanliness causing the spread of deadly infections, two mothers died during childbirth at the same NHS hospital on the same day.