High death toll the result of ageism, says charity leader

AGEISM among government officials and scientists is to blame for Britain’s high Covid death toll, the head of Age UK has suggested.

Official figures show there have been more than 70,500 deaths among people aged 65 and over where coronavirus is mentioned on the death certificate, representing 90 per cent of the UK’s Covid19 deaths.

Furthermore, almost one in three (28 per cent) deaths in the UK where coronavirus is mentioned on the death certificate occurred in a care home.

It was revealed by this newspaper that coronavirus hospital patients can be discharged into care homes without being tested under draft government

guidelines. Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said that “the ageism revealed by the pandemic has been profoundly depressing”.

Writing online for The Sunday Telegraph, she said: “Perhaps these oversights are less surprising when you consider that there is no one in Whitehall to speak up for older people: no minister for older people, no commissioner, no strategy or plan, and no cross-cutting unit of officials.

“The over 65s comprise almost one in five of the population and rising, yet the government machine almost entirely ignores them as a group: a classic example of ‘structural ageism?’

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social care said: “We are committed to sustainable improvement of the adult social care system and will bring forward proposals next year.”

70,500

The number of fatalities among people aged over 65 where coronavirus is mentioned on the death certificate