Non-covid excess deaths at home rise to 100 per day
Patients afraid to go to hospital or caught in NHS backlog are paying with their lives, ONS study finds
ONE hundred extra people are dying in their own homes each day from illnesses such as heart disease and Alzheimer’s because of the pandemic, figures have shown.
Experts have warned that people could be dying prematurely or without proper end-of-life care because they cannot access NHS services or feel discouraged from trying.
Overall the number of deaths in private homes in England between Dec 28 last year and September 11 was 108,842 – up 25,472 on the five-year average, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The number of people dying at home with dementia or Alzheimer’s was up by 79 per cent and deaths from heart disease increased by 26 per cent.
Deaths from cerebral palsy, heart rhythm problems, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease also increased by more than 70 per cent.
However, the number of people dying in hospital since the start of the pandemic is below the five-year average.
The ONS data came to light after The Daily Telegraph published an analysis that showed the cost of efforts to “protect the NHS” had resulted in hospital admissions plummeting by up to 90 per cent.
Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter, chairman of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at Cambridge University, said: “Usually around 300 people die each day in their homes in England and Wales – the latest ONS analysis confirms that even after the peak of the epidemic this has stayed at around 400 a day and shows no sign of declining – that’s one-third extra, very few of which are from Covid.
“Non-covid deaths in hospital have correspondingly declined, suggesting most of these deaths would normally have occurred in hospital, and people have either been reluctant to go, discouraged from attending, or the services have been disrupted.
“It is unclear how many of these lives could have been extended had they gone to hospital.”
An extra 1,705 men died from heart disease in their own homes in England compared with the average number over the previous five years – a rise of 26 per cent. Prostate cancer deaths rose by 53 per cent – to an extra 801 while bowel cancer fatalities increased by 46 per cent in men.
For women, the leading cause of death was heart disease, accounting for 10.5 per cent of all fatalities in private homes. Deaths from breast cancer were up 47 per cent.
Founder of the #Catchupwithcancer, Professor Pat Price, said: “Today’s figures are yet more damning evidence of the Government’s failure to tackle the treatment backlog.
“While the figures cover multiple
health conditions, nowhere is this worse than in cancer. This is the worst cancer crisis I have seen in my 30-year career. Frontline staff are amazing and going above and beyond, but patients fear the toxic combination of treatment delays and dying in isolation.
“We need a super-boost to services, like advanced radiotherapy, to clear the huge patient backlog. Otherwise, thousands of patients will die at home without access to the health service and the care they need.”
Sarah Caul, head of mortality at ONS, said: “While deaths in hospitals and care homes have dropped below the fiveyear average since the initial peak of the coronavirus pandemic, we’ve consistently seen deaths in private homes remain well above the five-year average.”