The lives lost to hospital-acquired Covid | Letters

Guardian readers respond to our report that up to 8,700 patients died after catching Covid in English hospitals, with some sharing their own stories

Thank you for your excellent article (Up to 8,700 patients died after catching Covid in English hospitals, 24 May). My wife was admitted to Basildon hospital in early September for a 10-hour heart bypass operation, and afterwards was in intensive care for three weeks before being transferred to general wards for recovery. The ward Pam went to had a Covid outbreak after a few days, and she contracted it. She was moved into a total of five wards - all had Covid at some stage - and she finally passed away on 18 November. Pam was a very nervous person and I dread to think what was going through her mind, as I was unable to have contact with her for her final seven weeks. I have yet to come to terms with her situation and passing.

Pam received marvellous treatment from the medical staff, even allowing me and family and friends to send emails, which a nurse read out to her. However, early in the pandemic a Nightingale hospital was built at the ExCeL centre to accommodate a significant number of patients; it has barely been used. I contend that if all the Covid patients within a 30-mile radius had been transferred there, it would have kept all the other hospitals in the catchment area free of the virus, and allowed them to operate normally, thus preventing a significant number of deaths. I am convinced that had such a policy been adopted, Pam would still be alive today.