The death toll was disclosed by the Government amid mounting concern over the dignity of patients on NHS wards.
They will also fuel concerns about care homes, as it was disclosed that eight people starved to death and 21 people died of thirst while in care.
Last night there were warnings that they must prompt action by the NHS and care home regulators to prevent further deaths among patients.
The Office for National Statistics figures also showed that:
- as well as 43 people who starved to death, 287 people were recorded by doctors as being malnourished when they died in hospitals;
- there were 558 cases where doctors recorded that a patient had died in a state of severe dehydration in hospitals;
- 78 hospital and 39 care home patients were killed by bedsores, while a further 650 people who died had their presence noted on their death certificates;
- 21,696 were recorded as suffering from septicemia when they died, a condition which experts say is most often associated with infected wounds.
Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said the statistics were a grim and shaming reflection of 21st century Britain.
"These are people's mothers, fathers, and grandparents," she said. "It is hard enough to lose a loved one, but to find out that they died because they were not adequately fed or hydrated, is a trauma no family should have to bear."
Michelle Mitchell, Charity Director of Age UK, described the figures as "deeply distressing" given that such deaths were avoidable.
She said: "Hospitals and care homes must pick up on the warning signs of malnutrition and ensure that while older people are in their care they get all the help and support they need to eat and drink."
The disclosures come as a public inquiry into Stafford Hospital, where thousands died amid appalling failings in care, prepares to publish recommendations in the New Year on changes to prevent such a scandal being repeated.
They also follow a series of scandals over care of the elderly, leading to an intervention from David Cameron earlier this year ordering nurses to attend to patients more often.
Mr Cameron announced that nurses would have to undertake hourly ward rounds to check whether patients are hungry, in pain, or need help going to the lavatory. It followed spot checks by NHS regulators, which found that half of 100 hospitals were failing basic standards to treat elderly with dignity, and ensure they were properly fed.
A report published last week by the Royal College of Physicians said too many hospitals treat patients as "medical conditions" not people, leaving the most basic and emotional needs overlooked.
In Alexandra Hospital in Redditch, Worcestershire, doctors resorted to prescribing patients with drinking water to ensure nurses did not forget, a report from inspectors warned in May last year.
The Care Quality Commission recorded one case where an elderly patient was found to be malnourished when they were admitted to the ward, yet not reassessed until 16 days later.
In many wards nurses were dumping meal trays in front of patients too weak to feed themselves and then taking them away again untouched.
A report by the Health Service Ombudsman last year condemned the NHS for its inhumane treatment of the most vulnerable.
The investigation found patients were left hungry, unwashed or given the wrong drugs because of the "casual indifference of staff".
The ONS figures also disclose scores of care home residents who were found to be malnourished or malnourished when they died.
In total, 103 residents were dehydrated when they died, including 21 cases where it was the direct cause of death.
A further 39 deaths of care home residents involved malnourished residents; in eight cases malnutrition was listed as the direct cause.
Officials who compiled the figures said that not all the deaths could be directly blamed on poor care. Some illnesses such as dementia and diseases of the digestive tract make it more difficult to eat or drink.
The figures also disclose thousands of patients and care home residents suffering signs of neglect such as bedsores, when they died last year.
In total, 767 care home residents and hospital patients had bedsores when they died. In 78 cases in hospitals, and 39 cases in care homes, it was listed as the direct cause of death on deathc certificates.
There were also thousands of deaths of patients and care home residents who were suffering from septicaemia, which experts say is most often caused by infected wounds.
In total, 21,696 hospital patients and 1,100 care home residents were suffering from the blood poisoning when they died.
In care homes, it was the direct cause of death in 101 cases, and in hospitals, it caused 1,997 deaths.
In July, an inquest heard that a young man who died of dehydration at a leading hospital rang 999 for police because he was so thirsty.
Officers arrived at Kane Gorny's bedside, but were told by nurses that he was in a confused state and were sent away.
The footballer and runner, 22, died of dehydration a few hours later, an inquest heard in July.
Mr Gorny had survived a malignant brain tumour in 2008. The cancer affected his pituitary gland, which controls the body's mechanisms, such as fluid levels.
Part of his treatment included a course of steroids to regulate the fluid levels in his body. These drugs, however, weakened his bones and he was in hospital for a routine hip replacement.
Doctors had warned that, without regular medication to control his fluid levels, he would die.
But when he was admitted to St George's Hospital in Tooting, South London, staff ignored repeated reminders from Mr Gorny and his family to give him the tablets, and he became severely dehydrated after being refused water.
His mother told the inquest that in May 2009 she received a distressed phone call from her son, in which he said he had called the police because he was so desperate for a drink.
Shortly before he died, his mother found him delirious and saw that his medication was untouched.
Mr Gorny became more and more dehydrated and sodium levels in his blood rose.
He died of water deficit and hypernatraemia, a medical term for dehydration, three days after he was admitted to hospital.
A Department for Health spokesman said: "Quality of care, dignity and compassion should be central to the treatment of all patients, whether in the NHS or care homes.
"To ensure that this happens, and to root out bad practice, the CQC has increased the number of unannounced inspections that it undertakes, and in winter this year it will publish its findings from a series of inspections looking specifically at dignity and nutrition.
"We are also investing ยฃ140 million so that nurses can spend more time with patients, not paperwork."
Reader Comments
I see this as a general degradation (if the statistics actually represent a worsening of the situation) of basic human values and an essential sense of the dignity of a person, as a being trying to survive in a body.
I know that privately-run prisons in the US have become notorious for mistreatment of inmates.
And I'm not sure private nursing homes do much better.
The point is, a community-based solution MIGHT work just as well as a more free-enterprise-based solution. IF the willingness to do it right is present.
I'm not sure the problem is in "socialism" per se. I think it is the people who push the "ism" that make the difference.
In my opinion, it is due to lack of socialism in hospital. I worked in hospital for 5 years, and the main problem was the differences in earnings. Doctors earn 10 times more than average medical personel, that is the reason there is no money to feed appropiately the patients. And when nurse understands the need to spare money on patients because docors earn more than hospital can afford, then it may lead to frustration and different unhuman behaviours.
You do realize the above article is in the UK right? A completely socialized system. I doubt it's possible to make it "more socialized". You either didn't realize where this article is from or you have a complete disconnect from reality.
"I'm not sure the problem is in "socialism" per se. I think it is the people who push the "ism" that make the difference."
This is true to some extent. But the issue almost always ends up being the problem with the attitudes of people who take govt tax dollars. It's almost like being a kid who is spending his parents money, they have no real ownership over the business since the govt will pay them no matter how shitty of a job they do. Everyone's heard about the $10,000 toilets, people will charge the govt w/e they can get away with. And they usually won't bother doing their best.
When you pay someone from the money you earned with your own hard labor you care about getting a fair price and quality work. And businesses who provide quality work for a fair price get a reputation as such. When the govt gets involved prices go up and quality goes down nearly every time. This isn't just an article about medical malpractice, this is an article about the disconnect of medical employees from their patients. That disconnect comes from the attitude of being a govt employee, they do not feel the need to improve their services as the govt will pick up the bill and there is no competition to worry about.
which most are in the US, refuse to hire enough Nurse's aides to keep the patient to care-giver ratio low enough so every patient can get the care they need. These people are paid, depending on location, from about 7/8 dollars to 10/12 dollars an hour to feed, bath, take vitals, help them to the bathroom or change them, answer calls, etc., and often one aide has 10 to 15 patients in an average hospital or nursing home. It is the aides who do the hands on care while overworked nurses deliver meds and do routine patient care that Doctors used to do. Regardless of the good intentions of most low end health care workers, they physically cannot give every patient the care they need.
For all, aides, nurses, and doctors, the patient to care-giver ratio is too high for patients to receive adequate care because employee wages and benefits are what cut into profits the most and must be kept as low as possible so the stockholders can get their returns. It is one more scandal caused by psychopaths and greed. Change your diet and get healthy and avoid hospitalization at all costs.
I realize there is much more to this can o' worms than meets the eye. The biggest problem clearly seems (to me) to be the inevitable corruption of govt agencies and workers. Which can only be eliminated by NOT having a governing body over industry in the first place but to let the free market run its course and competition to weed out the bad apples. Unless someone can figure out a way to create an "un-corruptable" governing body, but the whole of recorded human history speaks against that.
I repeat--it is the privatization of medical care and corporate owned hospitals and care facilities, with their focus on profits that has caused the steady rise of patient/caregiver ratios and the resulting downturn in quality of care over the last thirty years or so.
Socialized medicine (and government for that matter) that could exist WITHOUT PSYCHOPATHS in management and power positions would be such a different reality that most people today lack the imagination to conceive of it.
Read the opening SOTT article on today's page for the answer to most evil on the planet today.
No wonder they can't pay enough staff to see that the patients are fed, there is simply not enought nurses to go round.