ONS has put out some very interesting data today about people dying in their own homes. As I've reported before this is a issue which hasn't received enough attention. Indeed, ONS confirmed today that in 2020 the numbers of excess deaths at home are up 23% in England. https://twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1315956506307825665

Almost 60% of excess deaths in private homes in England people aged 70 to 89 years. See table below. Deaths in hospitals/hospices way down, deaths in private homes/care homes up. Private home deaths up most-41% for women in England, for example.

It's v important to note. ONS says these people dying at home were not dying of Covid. With English males, for example, the biggest cause of death at home was heart disease (25.9% up). Meanwhile, heart disease deaths at hospitals were down 22.4%.

Prostate cancer deaths at home were up 53.5% in England. They're down 28.2% in hospital. 5 year av for prostate cancer for these weeks in all settings is 4794 deaths. We reached 4979, up 3.5% or 185 men. The question which will be asked is, were these deaths avoidable?

Likewise for colon, rectal cancers etc.

Five year average for men in England is 3649

2020 number for these weeks is 3787

So up 138 or 3.7%. That's been driven by a 46% increase in deaths at home.

Its's different for women.

I've reported a lot on how covid has affected those with dementia but these figs are shocking.

Typically the 5 year for female dementia death is 17688

For 2020 it's 21,448- a 21% increase

This is being driven by deaths at home and in are homes

In Wales dementia deaths for women are up 19%. This has been driven again by dementia deaths at home and in care homes. Eg female dementia deaths at home in Wales are *92%* and up 28.5% in care. They're down in hospital but not by enough to mean we don't have an overall increase.