Latest estimate suggests thousands have died from coronavirus in UK care homes
There is renewed concern about the situation in the UK’s extensive care home network following multiple reports of a spike in deaths linked to the coronavirus outbreak.
Now an authoritative body has stepped in to confirm people’s worst fears, namely that the number of deaths at care homes has been vastly under-estimated.
According to the National Care Forum (NCF), more than 4,000 people in residential and nursing homes may have died after contracting COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, before April 13.
The NCF is the leading representative body for care and support providers across all UK nations, including England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Did you know we have a dedicated resources page for COVID-19?
— National Care Forum (@NCFCareForum) March 12, 2020
Are you worried about #Covid_19 ? Unsure on what guidance to follow within your #socialcare settings?
Take a look at our host of resources https://t.co/6fuusYt69g @DHSCgovuk @CPA_SocialCare @theRCN @CareQualityComm
The NCF bases its estimate on an independent audit it carried out recently, collating data from 47 care homes looking after more than 30,000 people across the UK, representing 7.4% of the care sector population.
The NCF figure sharply diverge from the latest data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) which records 217 care home deaths up to April 03.
The NCF’s estimate has once again raised serious questions about the UK’s official coronavirus casualties which is structured to either ignore or under-count deaths in care homes and the wider community.
The Department of Health provides a daily update of UK coronavirus deaths which only includes people who died of COVID-19 in hospitals.
Fatality counts for care homes and the wider community covering England and Wales are published separately on a weekly basis by the ONS.
The fact that the ONS releases figures belatedly means the overall UK death toll is skewed and the real casualty picture may not become fully clear for weeks or even months.
According to the National Health Service, as of 2019 there were 17,000 nursing and residential care homes in England alone, housing 400,000 people, with one in seven residents aged 85 or over.
The sheer scale of Britain’s care home network, coupled with some estimates that as much as 70 percent of care homes have been hit by the COVID-19 outbreak, provides a bleak outlook of the UK’s coronavirus death toll trajectory.
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