New statistics reveal extent of Covid-19 care home deaths in Wales

Deaths of care home residents across Wales have increased by more than 40% this year, new figures have revealed.

Like several others Wrexham.com has been requesting that the care home data be released by Welsh Government, however this dataset had not been published previously due to issues around confirming the quality of the data.

In the new release the information shows that between March 1 and November 20 Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) was notified of 5,562 deaths in adult care home residents – from all causes of death.

This is 41% rise in deaths of adult care home residents on the same period last year (3944) and 35% higher than in 2018.

The figures cover deaths from all causes, not just COVID-19. However during the nine months CIW has been notified of 934 care home resident deaths with suspected or confirmed coronavirus.

509 of these were reported as “confirmed” and 425 “suspected” cases.

This makes up 17% of all adult care home residents reported deaths since 1 March 2020.

The top image shows the notifications of deaths of residents from adult care homes by date of notification for both confirmed and suspected Covid-19 from all of Wales.

Welsh Government explain, “The data presented here are based on the Notifications of Service User Deaths received by Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) from adult care homes which relate to their residents. The location of death may be in the care home, in hospital or another location.”

“We are publishing these data to ensure access to the CIW data is transparent and to provide a timely indication of trends for all deaths to care home residents in Wales, from COVID-19 or otherwise. However, CIW are reliant on providers notifying them and being able to provide an indication that they are COVID-19 related deaths.”

The new release also contains a range of graphs to visualise the data, that also show the recent increases in Covid-19 “suspected” or “confirmed” deaths.

There have been calls throughout the pandemic for the Welsh Government to regular updates on the coronavirus situation within care homes, including the number of deaths and positive cases amongst residents and staff.

As part of figures it has been confirmed that the Welsh Government and CIW have agreed to publish provisional counts of deaths in care homes, based on statutory notifications by care home providers to CIW.

Last Friday Denbighshire Council issued a statement regarding the death of 15 residents in three weeks at the Llangollen Fechan Care Home.

During that time the home had seen 56 positive cases and 15 deaths with coronavirus amongst residents and a further 33 cases amongst staff.

Later that day we asked First Minister Mark Drakeford how, after all this time, such incidents can still happen. We also asked if he would be ensuring such measures are in place for care homes across Wales, and why that is the response rather than the standard.

Mr Drakeford said: “I do think that the rules around care homes are much stronger now than they were back in the spring.

“We’ve got a much better understanding of the way the Coronavirus spreads, but once Coronavirus is in a care home, it is there with a group of the most vulnerable people with underlying health conditions, elderly people.

“It is a virus that just attacks people in that deadly way. Once it is in a care home, then it really is down to all the things that the care home itself has to do in terms of infection control, in terms of the way that staff use PPE and so on.”

“A lot of help is being provided, both to that care home in Llangollen where there is that very sad story today, but also to other care homes as well, to make sure that all those basic things the care home itself has to take responsibility for are being done in the best possible way.”

Speaking on Monday Health Minister Vaughan Gething said that “just under half the Wales adult care homes have not reported any confirmed cases of coronavirus in either residents or staff since the start the pandemic.”

He added that “we know just how devastating it can be it coronavirus gets into a care home, as we have sadly seen in Llangollen recently”.