DEATHS amongst the elderly are being ’airbrushed’ out of the national coronavirus figures say UK charities.
Age UK, Marie Curie, Care England and others have written to the Health Secrtary Matt Hancock to ask for a package of support for social care.
The Government has said that there have been Covid-19 outbreaks in 2000 homes in the UK. In Cornwall, there have been confirmed coronavirus cases in nine homes, Cornwall Council has today confirmed. Cabinet member for Adults Rob Rotchell said it was difficult to ascertain the exact number of deaths in care homes in the county due to coronavirus because there was not always a diagnosis.In the UK as a whole, the number of deaths outside of hospitals is not publicised in the daily updates. The latest data available from the Office of National Statistics is for the totals up to April 3. On that day, when the Government figures showed there had been 3,605 deaths in the UK in hospitals, the ONS figures show 406 deaths outside of hospitals: 217 in care homes, 33 in hospices, 136 in private homes, and 20 elsewhere.
Age UK has said that in the meantime the coronavirus has ’run wild’ through the country’s care homes.
The charity together with Marie Curie, Care England, Alzheimer’s Society and Independent Age have called upon the Government to put urgent support in place which would: provide sufficient PPE for staff; make testing of staff and of people being discharged from hopsitals into care homes a priority; enable residents of care homes to stay in touch with their families; provide palliative care for those dying from coronavirus in homes; and to give daily updates on deaths in care homes, so that the scale of the challenge can be understood.