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Bodies being stored in makeshift morgues at UK gritting yards as hospitals overflow – The Mirror

Hospitals in Salisbury and Liverpool have installed temporary structures in car parks and business parks capable of holding dozens of corpses as morgues reach breaking point

https://archive.today/2023.01.15-164443/https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/bodies-being-stored-makeshift-morgues-28939174

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Hospital-acquired COVID-19 tends to be picked up from other patients, not from healthcare workers – University of Cambridge

The majority of patients who contracted COVID-19 while in hospital did so from other patients rather than from healthcare workers, concludes a new study from researchers at the University of Cambridge and Addenbrooke’s Hospital.

The researchers analysed data from the first wave of the pandemic, between March and June 2020.  While a great deal of effort is made to prevent the spread of viruses within hospital by keeping infected and non-infected individuals apart, this task is made more difficult during times when the number of infections is high. The high level of transmissibility of the virus and the potential for infected individuals to be asymptomatic both make this task particularly challenging.

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/hospital-acquired-covid-19-tends-to-be-picked-up-from-other-patients-not-from-healthcare-workers

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People with mental illness and learning disabilities given ‘do not resuscitate’ orders during pandemic – The Telegraph

Patients with mental illness and learning disabilities were given “do not resuscitate” orders during the pandemic, The Telegraph can disclose.

Families, carers and doctors have said that medics decided that patients with these conditions should not be resuscitated if their heart stopped – a decision which in one case appears to have led to the patient’s death.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/09/patients-mental-illness-learning-disabilities-given-do-not-resuscitate/

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NHS HOSPITALS SPEND £2M ON GAGGING ORDERS PREVENTING STAFF SPEAKING OUT – The Independent (2013)

Hospitals have spent £2 million on more than 50 gagging orders preventing staff speaking out, a Freedom of Information Act request has revealed.

Tory MP Steve Barclay, who obtained the figures, accused NHS chief Sir David Nicholson of either failing to ask questions about the orders or being “complicit in a cover-up”.

Sir David will retire as NHS England’s chief executive next year but Mr Barclay said he should stand down now because the culture in the health service had to change.

It was reported last night that at least 52 staff have been silenced using the orders since 2008, some of which cost as much as £500,000. All are thought to contain confidentiality clauses.

…North East Cambridgeshire MP Mr Barclay told The Daily Telegraph: “It is simply not plausible that the man who was supposed to be running the NHS was seemingly unaware that employees threatening to speak out were being offered golden goodbyes in return for a vow of silence.”

https://web.archive.org/web/20201111180257/https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/nhs-hospitals-spend-ps2m-gagging-orders-preventing-staff-speaking-out-8654716.html