Almost 30% of Covid patients in England readmitted to hospital after discharge - study

[nitpicker]

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jan/18/almost-30-of-covid-patients-in-england-re-admitted-to-hospital-after-discharge-study

Almost 30% of Covid patients in England readmitted to hospital after discharge – study

Natalie Grover
Mon 18 Jan 2021 17.05 GMTLast modified on Mon 18 Jan 2021 17.13 GMT

Nearly a third of people who were discharged from hospitals in England after being treated for Covid-19 were readmitted within five months – and almost one in eight died, a study suggests.

The research, which is still to be peer-reviewed, also found a higher risk of problems developing in a range of organs after hospital discharge in those younger than 70 and ethnic minority individuals.
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The findings are based on data from the ONS and general practitioners in England. A total of 47,780 individuals who had a hospital episode between 1 January 2020 and 31 August 2020 with a primary diagnosis of Covid-19 were compared with a control group who did not have Covid-19.

Of the 47,780, 29.4% were readmitted within 140 days of discharge and 12.3% died. The rate of readmission was 3.5 times greater, and the death rate seven times higher, than those in the control group, the researchers found.

The risk of post-discharge illness – such as respiratory conditions, diabetes and problems with the heart, liver and kidneys – in Covid-19 patients was higher compared with the control group. That risk was also greater in younger and ethnic minority individuals compared with those aged 70 and above and white people.
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Respiratory disease was diagnosed in 14,140 of the Covid-19 cases (29.6%) following discharge, with 6,085 of the diagnoses in patients that had no history of respiratory conditions.

If this percentage of people who came to hospital end up with chronic respiratory disease, she said, “the NHS has just got an enormous burden that it didn’t have before”.
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