168 care home residents have died from Covid
ACCORDING to new figures more than 150 borough care home residents have died from Covid since the start of the pandemic.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC), which inspects care homes, published the data which shows 168 care home residents in Rochdale died from Covid, between April 10, 2020 and March 31, 2021.
Carders Court Care Home in Castleton saw the highest number of deaths with 24, while Millfield Care Home in Heywood was second with 18.
Both of these care homes have more than 50 beds, while smaller care homes across the borough only saw a handful of deaths.
For example Littleborough Home for the Elderly only saw a single death, while Marland Court on Marland Old Road had seven deaths.
Overall, more than 39,000 care home residents died with the virus across the country, with care homes in the North West having the most Covid-related deaths in the first wave of the pandemic.
The overall number of residents who died of Covid while in care homes in the North West was 5,748.
The CQC say it ‘is important to note that death notifications do not in themselves indicate poor quality care, particularly given the potential influence of variable factors, including rates of local community transmission, size of the care home, and the age and health and care needs of the people living there’.
The data covers deaths of residents involving Covid under the care of the provider as notified to CQC, regardless of where the virus was contracted or where the death occurred, including in the care home, in hospital, in an ambulance or in any other setting.
For example, a resident may have been admitted from a care home to hospital with a fracture, contracted Covid while in hospital, and subsequently died without returning to the care home.
Therefore a death notification would not necessarily indicate that there was Covid present in the care home.
Kate Terroni, CQC’S Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, said: “In considering this data 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 are grateful for the time that families who lost their loved ones during the pandemic have spent meeting with us and the personal experiences they have shared.
“These discussions have helped us shape our thinking around the highly sensitive issue of publishing information on the numbers of death notifications involving Covid received from individual care homes.”
Ms Terroni added that the CQC added that she hopes the release of data will provide a more comprehensive picture of the impact of Covid.
She said: “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 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 in a care home.”