THREAD – Care home deaths

A number of reports today are citing a study by the LSE and claiming that official figures of deaths in care homes are seriously under-estimated

Some reports suggest that ONS have only reported 8.3k excess deaths in care homes

This is incorrect

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We reported 8.3k deaths in care home settings with COVID mentioned on death certs, registered by 1 May

We also explained that this accounts for well under half of the “excess” deaths, or deaths above normal weekly averages

They total 19.9k in the last 6 weeks reported

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We have also reported that based on death notifications from care homes to the CQC, there is good comparability between the views of care home managers and death certificates

And in the w/e 8 May those notifications add another 1,500+ deaths in care homes involving COVID

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I have explained repeatedly that the difference between COVID-related and excess deaths could be due to:

Disruption to normal care pathways

COVID being present and exacerbating other conditions, but not obvious to the medical practitioner in the absence of a test

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Many people, including myself, have reiterated the importance of looking at “excess” deaths to capture deaths both directly and indirectly due to COVID

I reported yesterday that across the UK in all settings “excess” deaths in the last 6 registration weeks now total 50k+

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We are scheduled to publish a report this Friday which takes a deeper look at the deaths of care home residents

This will include the deaths of residents that took place in settings other than care homes themselves

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