Excess deaths one third higher in care homes across the UK following pandemic

New ONS data has revealed that private homes and care homes ‘bore the brunt of excess deaths’ in 2020 as they increased by one-third compared with previous years.

The data found that deaths at home among people aged 85 years and over were 43% above average in England and 38% in Wales.

Between 2015 and 2019, the average number of deaths recorded in private homes was 125,000, but in 2020 this number was recorded at 167,000.

Coronavirus tends to be more life-threatening among the older generation, and this disease was the underlying cause of almost 74,000 excess deaths.

However, ONS data also showed that heart disease caused significantly more deaths than normal during 2020. Following COVID, chronic rheumatic heart diseases were the second biggest cause of deaths.

Throughout the first lockdown in 2020, older people were advised to stay at home like the rest of the world, but because they were so vulnerable to the disease, those living in care homes had to wait longer to return to normality.

Government guidelines around care home visits, following the pandemic, proposed that every resident should have an identified essential care giver who is allowed to visit the home to help with care needs and offer companionship to friends or family members residing in the home.

Lindsay Fearon is an essential caregiver for her Dad, 88, and her Uncle, 91. The care home she visits will lockdown immediately if two or more residents test positive for COVID, but with rules on testing and isolation being lifted for the general public, she believes we have opened up too soon.

She said: “We’ve only just been allowed this weekend to actually take them outside the buildings, so I think two cases to shut down is very, very harsh."

If the care home does shut down due to multiple Covid cases and only essential care givers are allowed to visit, Lindsay will be required to take seven lateral flow tests and three PCR tests a week.

Following the government announcement about charging for COVID tests, she said: “I think it’s a big mistake that they’re going to start charging for them.

“Obviously I would be desperate to see my dad, so I would have to pay. I’d have to find the money from somewhere because he’s just deteriorating so quickly."

As Covid restrictions continue to ease, there is hope that over the next few months, those in care homes will be able to return to some form of normal life again.