MOSCOW, April 25 (RIA Novosti) - Thousands of patients may have died needlessly over just one year in British hospitals that are being investigated over unusually high mortality rates, UK media reported.
Up to 3,000 unexpected deaths occurred over one year at 14 hospitals the UK health authorities are investigating in the wake of the Mid-Staffordshire scandal, The Times and The Daily Telegraph reported.
In particular, the number of deaths was 410 above the expected figures in the year to late October 2012 at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, whereas Tameside reported 210 more deaths than it was expected over the period.
The probe into the hospitals’ activity was launched after the publication of a report following a public inquiry into hundreds of deaths at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust in the late 2000s.
The public inquiry established that up to 1,200 patients died unnecessarily in Mid-Staffordshire in 2005-2008 “because bosses put government targets ahead of patient safety,” the Daily Mail reported earlier.
