Thread by @juliette_io

How many people are in NSW hospitals *with* Covid but not *for* Covid?

The Daily Telegraph says it's 40-50% of patients

I have data from 2 major hospitals that tell a different story

🧵 1/9

#covid19aus #covid19nsw #COVID19

I asked clinicians from 4 big hospitals for an analysis of a random sample of currently admitted Covid patients

2 could help🙏

Both had very similar breakdowns:

~76-80% of Covid patients admitted *for* Covid illness
~20-24% admitted *with* Covid but for something else

2/9

Some more detail on the samples ...

Hospital A: n=21
Hospital B: n=101

Both samples were randomly selected and statistically significant given total Covid patients at each facility

3/9

It's quite possible that in a single hospital at a single point in time, 50% of Covid patients were admitted for other reasons

But it's spurious to extrapolate this to the entire state and wave

Be wary of snapshot data that lacks context or detail 👎

4/9

The PM says he wants to change hospitalisation data

Good! Here are a few ideas ...

UK's NHS publishes datasets with:
- bed use (by acuity)
- admissions
- capacity
- hospital breakdowns
- primary diagnosis

All we get in Aus is a snapshot of today's patients

5/9

NT and QLD already report diff kinds of non-ICU hospitalisation following a 'Covid trigger'

NT:

1. All hospitalised inc. for isolation / risk (fed dashboard)

2. All hospitalised inc. incidental Covid (NT dashboard)

3. Hospitalised for Covid care (pressers)

6/9

(*Note the NT CHO has specifically mentioned dialysis as a primary cause of admission with incidental Covid)

QLD:

1. All hospitalised inc. isolating or incidental Covid (fed dashboard)

2. Hospitalised for Covid care (state tweet and press conferences)

I'm tracking it all. See the hospitalisations / ICU chart on the homepage of covid19data.com.au

7/9

Why do incidental Covid admissions matter?

- Helps gauge severity of Omicron and what we should expect from huge case numbers (217,000 in last 7 days nationally)

- Indicates burdens on healthcare system (while acknowledging all Covid-positive admissions affect resources)

This is important data that needs to be released properly. Not in cherry-picked snapshots that are designed to minimise the severity of Omicron

🍒 🙅‍♀️

9/9

p.s. Here's the hospitalisation data published by the UK's NHS -

england.nhs.uk/statistics/sta…