Number of people dying at home hits highest total this century

THE number of people dying at home is now the highest since the turn of the century after patients continue to struggle to access healthcare, official statistics suggest.

Between January and June this year there were 21,471 excess deaths in private homes in England and Wales – almost 2,000 more than for the same period last year. In total, 85,910 people died at home in the first six months of the year, a record in Office for National Statistics data available since 2001, when 51,517 people died at home.

Excess deaths are the fatalities recorded above a five-year average, which includes the pre-pandemic years from 2015 to 2019.

Coronary heart disease was the main cause of death at home, with 1,470 excess deaths during the period, 12.4 per cent above the five-year average, the ONS data show.

Alzheimer’s deaths at home were 98 per cent above the five-year average with 986 excess deaths. Dementia was 51.3 per cent higher, with 1,086 excess deaths.

Sarah Caul, ONS head of mortality analysis, said the figures showed the pandemic “appears to have had an indirect effect” on private-home deaths. “This could be because of a combina- tion of factors which may include health service disruption, people choosing to stay away from healthcare settings, or terminally ill people staying at home rather than be admitted to other settings for end-of-life care,” she added.

It comes after patients reported difficulties accessing their GP in the pandemic. More than 5.7 million are also waiting to start treatment on the NHS.

James White, head of public affairs and campaigns at the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “This shocking rise in the number of people with dementia dying is a chilling reminder of the pandemic’s impact. Through our support line we continue to hear of the heartbreak that families affected are experiencing, made worse by a social care system unable to cope.”

Paul Edwards, from Dementia UK, said the number of at-home dementia deaths “paints a stark picture”. He said: “We also know how strained dementia services were prior to the pandemic, with access to support becoming more challenging now with Covid-19 and the flu in circulation.”

Across the entire pandemic, 62,792 excess deaths were registered in private homes in England and Wales from Jan 2020 to June 2021, ONS figures show.

Kevin Mcconway, emeritus professor of applied statistics at the Open University, said the data suggest patients have died at home who would, in previous years, have died in a hospital, care home or hospice.

Separate ONS figures published this week show that in recent months, when almost all lockdown restrictions eased, there were still many more people dying at home: 75,474 excess deaths in private homes registered between March 7 2020 and Oct 29 2021. Of these, 8,824 were deaths to do with Covid.

More than 10,000 excess deaths in private homes have been registered in England and Wales since August 2021.

This compares with 5,000 excess deaths in hospitals and 1,400 in care homes over the same period.

Sarah Scobie, from the Nuffield Trust health think tank, said: “Registrations show that deaths from causes other than Covid-19, such as dementia and heart disease, are on the rise outside of care settings.”