Ninth Covid-19 patient dies at Northampton General Hospital during 'second wave' of pandemic

NHS England today confirmed another patient who had tested positive for Covid-19 has died at Northampton General Hospital.

Figures revealed in a daily bulletin showed the fatality at the Cliftonville site on Friday (October 23). That takes the total to nine at NGH since a 'second wave' of the pandemic began to hit the the county and cases started rising sharply last month.

NHS analysts collate information on patients who have died in hospitals in England and either tested positive for Covid-19 or where no positive test result was received but Covid-19 is mentioned on a death certificate.

The latest death was among 184 confirmed today by NHS England which occurred in hospitals between October 23 and yesterday October 26.

Delays in reporting and registration can mean lags of up to four days or even more in deaths being added to the official NHS England tally.

Today's sad news follows previous announcements of three deaths at NGH on October 13 and on October 17, plus one more on October 5 and October 19.

Deaths of two Covid-19 patients at neighbouring Kettering General Hospital were also confirmed earlier this month.

Figures revealed at Friday's weekly media briefing showed 40 patients being treated for Covid-19 in the county's two hospitals.

Northamptonshire NHS Clinical Commissioning group boss, Toby Sanders, has warned a rapid rise in the number of patients being treated for the virus in hospital is a "cause for concern."

He said: “As a relative proportion of our hospital bed base it is thankfully still relatively small.

"But the rate at which that has been increasing over recent weeks is in direct response to the numbers of cases in the community doubling and trebling and that is a cause for concern from an NHS perspective."

Covid-19 was linked to 311 deaths in Northampton and 220 in Kettering between March and August.

A further 151 deaths in county care homes have been connected with Covid-19 by the Care Quality Commission, although the most recent was on August 17.