Deaths in Northamptonshire care homes rise sharply

A third of people who have died in Northants care homes since April 10th have had Covid-19 recorded on their death certificate.

The number of Northamptonshire care home residents dying has risen sharply in recent days, with almost a third directly attributable to Covid-19.

More than 130 care home residents have died in Northamptonshire in the past two weeks until April 24 and over half of the deaths recorded happened in the last five days, indicating an accelerating death toll.

There was a huge spike in deaths between last Monday and Friday (April 20-24) with 72 residents dying in care homes across the county, 18 of which were definitely coronavirus related.

The numbers of coronavirus care home deaths have been revealed for the first time this morning (April 28) by the Office of National Statistics, using Care Quality Commission data taken from death certificates.

The figures gives authority to the growing realisation that the pandemic is claiming thousands of lives across the country’s residential care homes.

Today Northamptonshire County Council has revealed that 50 of its care homes have been affected by a Covid 19 outbreak. An outbreak is classified when there are two or more confirmed cases.

According to the ONS data between Friday April 10 and Friday April 24 there were 132 deaths recorded, 42 of which stated Covid-19 as the cause.

The most deaths on one day was on April 20, when 18 people died, three of whom definitely had Covid-19. The most Covid-19 deaths recorded in care homes was on April 14, when there were seven deaths.

But there are fears that many coronavirus deaths are going unrecorded because the resident had not had a test for the virus.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service has also been told by a concerned social care worker that on occasions district nurses are being asked to pronounce the deaths and they have expressed concerns that coronavirus is not always put on the death certificate.

David Jones, chairman of Northamptonshire Healthwatch – the body that represents health users – says he has been impressed by the local response to the pandemic, which has seen health organisations and local authorities team up – but it now clear that the government was not ready.

He said: “I’m very concerned about the risks. I know there has been a bigger focus on the situation in care homes and this is exposing the vulnerability of the social care sector across the country and the problems that many of us have known about for a long time.”

David Jones said the sector had been under funded for many years and there needed to be some serious decisions made at national level about how to pay for social care. Currently social care is the responsibility of the local authority, which has to manage its service within a tight budget.

The county council says it has been working with health bodies to contact all of Northants care homes on a regular basis. Infection control teams give advice after an outbreak and now social care staff can be tested at Northampton General Hospital if they are showing signs of the virus.

Nationally between April 10 and April 24 there were 4,343 coronavirus deaths in care homes. The most cases in a single day were recorded on April 20, when 541 residents were killed by the virus.

Latest figures record 21,092 people have died from the contagion in UK hospitals.

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