A new Covida patient is admitted every 30 seconds, and according to a new study, there could be many more within months (Photo: Barcroft/PA).
One-third of patients who recovered from Covid were readmitted to the hospital within five months, with complications including heart problems, diabetes, and chronic liver and kidney disease.
New research has shown the devastating long-term effects of the virus: One in eight people dies within five months of diagnosis.
The University of Leicester and the National Statistics Office found that of the 47,780 people discharged from hospital in the first wave, 29.4% returned to hospital within 140 days and 12.3% died.
Survivors are three and a half times more likely to be readmitted to hospital and die than people with other conditions.
The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, is considered the largest to date, but it looks at what happened to those who were discharged from hospital after the Covid accident.
It appears that the total number of deaths due to the pandemic is much higher than the 89,261 deaths currently reported.
The author of the study, Kamlesh Hunti, a professor in the Department of Diabetes Primary Care and Vascular Medicine at the University of Leicester, told The Telegraph : People seem to come home, suffer long-term effects, come back and die. We see that almost 30% have been readmitted, that’s a lot of people. The numbers are so important.
Professor Hunti said the results show the NHS needs to introduce a monitoring system for those leaving hospital after Covid was injured.
Intensive Care Unit at St George’s Hospital, Tooting, South West London (Photo: PA)
He said people can be put on protective medications such as statins and aspirin to try to prevent the development of serious diseases.
He said: We don’t know if it’s because the Covid destroys the beta cells that produce insulin and you develop type 1 diabetes, or if it causes insulin resistance and you develop type 2 diabetes, but we’re seeing these amazing new diagnoses of diabetes.
The government currently records deaths as Covidien-related when a patient dies within 28 days of a positive test result. In the last seven days, nearly 8,000 people have died as a result of this measure.
In December, the ONS estimated that one in ten people who contracted covidosis had persistent symptoms of covidosis, with symptoms lasting three months or longer.
Ambulance workers pick up a patient in an ambulance to take him to the emergency department at the Royal London Hospital in London (Photo: Barcroft)
Author of the study Kamlesh Hunti, Professor of Diabetes Primary Care and Vascular Medicine at the University of Leicester.
This is often accompanied by extreme fatigue, shortness of breath, and problems with memory and concentration.
Commenting on the study, Christina Pagel, Head of Clinical Operations Research at University College London, tweeted: It’s such an important job. Covid is more than death. Significant burden of prolonged illness following Covid hospitalization.
NHS England Chief Executive Sir Simon Stevens revealed yesterday that a new Covid patient is admitted to hospital every 30 seconds, with 15,000 new admissions since Christmas Day.
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