Covid claimed 116 lives in first year of pandemic
THERE were 116 Covid deaths at care homes in Macclesfield, Poynton and Disley during the first year of the pandemic, Care Quality Commission (CQC) figures have revealed.
The independent regulator released the data this week showing death notifications involving coronavirus from individual care homes between April 10, 2020, and March 31, 2021.
It showed that in our area there has been deaths across 20 homes and the majority (79) had been in the first three months of this period or the first ‘wave’ of the pandemic.
Hardest hit during the year was Woodlands, on Middlewood Road, Poynton, where 20 residents passed away, and Hollins Park, on Victoria Road, Macclesfield, where there was 15 deaths.
But the CQC has pointed out that death notifications do not in themselves indicate poor quality care, saying there are other factors including rates of local community transmission, size of the care home, and the needs of the people living there. Also notifications can relate to the deaths of care home residents which occurred in other care settings.
A spokesman for Woodlands Care Home said a lot has been learned since the early days of the pandemic and that testing, vaccination and enhanced use of PPE has helped staff respond.
While at Hollins Park manager Tracy Norbury and other staff moved into the home during the pandemic to help look after residents.
The CQC currently rates the homes as good and outstanding respectively.
There were almost 40,000 coronavirus deaths in care homes in the first year of the pandemic.
During the first wave the north west was the worst affected region in the country with 3,081 deaths - an average of around 35 a day.
Drilling down further, the CQC figures show that in Cheshire East for this period there were 277 deaths for this period and 417 during the year.
In the Macclesfield, Poynton and Disley area the 116 figure is made up of 79 in the first three months, then two, two and 33.
The government has been accused of policy failures in the handling of the pandemic, including forcing institutions to accept Covid-19 patients from hospitals and failing to provide staff with protective equipment or tests.
Former health secretary Matt Hancock claimed the government had tried to throw ‘ a protective ring’ around care homes ‘from the start’ - a claim that has been furiously disputed by the industry.
In releasing the figures, the CQC has said that impact of the pandemic on people in adult social care services has been ‘devastating’ and despite the best efforts of staff, it has contributed to a significant increase in the number of deaths in nursing and residential care settings.
Kate Terroni, chief inspector of adult social care, said: “It is important to remember that every number represents a life lost – and families, friends and those who cared for them who are having to face the sadness and consequences of their death.
“We have a duty to be transparent and to act in the public interest, and we made a commitment to publish data at this level, but only once we felt able to do so as accurately and safely as possible given the complexity and sensitivity of the data.
“In doing so, we aim to provide a more comprehensive picture of the impact of Covid-19 on care homes, the people living in them and their families.
“It is important to be clear, however, that although this data relates to deaths of people who were care home residents, many of them did not die in or contract COVID-19 in a care home.”
This week figures say there have been 129,000 deaths in the UK within 28 days of a first positive test for Covid.