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Article: Extra days `would cut intensive care deaths'
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- May 25, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2001 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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THE DEATHS of more than a third of patients transferred out of
hospital intensive care units could be prevented if the most
seriously ill were allowed to stay for an extra two days, doctors
say.
A shortage of beds and trained nurses in IC means patients are
often moved too early. An extra 48 hours for at-risk patients would
cut needless deaths by 39 per cent, a team from two London hospitals
has found.
Dr Rene Chang, from St George's Hospital, London, studied almost
14,000 patients discharged from 20 intensive care units in the UK
over nine years for the report in today's British Medical Journal.
Together with colleagues from St Thomas's Hospital, London, he
calculated that patients who ...