Care home death figures set to be published

The Care Quality Commission began collecting data on deaths linked to Covid-19 which occurred in both hospitals and care homes on Thursday, Matt Hancock said.

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The most recent published figure is 217 care home deaths registered up until April 3.

The data is published at a lag of several weeks because it relies on death certificates which must be registered and processed, and until now has been the only official source for deaths outside hospitals.

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Meanwhile Public Health England said there were 3,084 care homes with Covid-19 outbreaks in England, up to and including April 15.

Experts have been calling for care home fatalities to be included in daily updates on deaths in hospitals, amid fears they are going ‘under the radar’.

Earlier this week, the head of Public Health England, Professor Yvonne Doyle, said agencies were working towards producing ‘much more rapid data, preferably on a daily basis’.

Mr Hancock told the Health and Social Care Committee: “I'm concerned about this as well; I asked CQC to make sure that we record the data in care homes specifically, of those who are residents of care homes, whether they die in hospital or in the care home, and they started collecting that data yesterday and it will be published very shortly.

He did not specify precisely when, or how often, this data will be published.