By 2020 sees more than 26000 extra deaths at home
A study conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has found that more than 26,000 extra deaths occurred in private homes so far this year.
It is thought that the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in fewer people seeking medical assistance.
As such, the majority of these home deaths are from unrelated conditions, but may have been indirectly caused by the pandemic.
Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter, chairman of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at the University of Cambridge, said:
“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.
“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, for example among the 450 extra deaths from cardiac arrhythmias.”
More men than normal are dying at home from heart disease in England and Wales, and more women are dying from dementia and Alzheimer’s, figures show.
In contrast, deaths in hospitals from these causes have been lower than usual.
Deaths in private homes, hospitals and care homes were well above the five-year average during April and May, at the height of the UK epidemic.
Since then, deaths in care homes and hospitals have dropped to below normal levels and stayed there.
However, deaths in private homes have remained higher than usual.
The figures equate to an extra 100 people dying at home each day.
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