Nearly 90,000 more people died at home from non-Covid causes in pandemic

Nearly 90,000 more people died at home from non-Covid causes during the pandemic, leading to fears that some could not access medical treatment or passed away without pain relief.

Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that there was a 30.2 per cent increase in deaths in private homes between March 2020 and June 2022.

At the same time, the number of people dying in hospital and hospices for non-Covid reasons plummeted by nearly 95,000, suggesting that most of those who died at home would ordinarily have been taken in for care.

Charities said that the situation was concerning and needed urgent investigation.

‘Postcode lottery in palliative care’

Ruth Driscoll, the head of policy and public affairs for England at Marie Curie, said: “This significant increase in the number people dying at home due to terminal illness is deeply concerning because many of these people are struggling to access the pain relief and end of life care they need, especially at nights and weekends, due to the postcode lottery in palliative care across England and Wales.

“We urge the Government to invest in local services and the health and care workforce to ensure that in future nobody is left to die in pain and without dignity.”

Figures show that the number of people dying at home from heart disease rose by 19.1 per cent during the pandemic period, with 9,991 more deaths than expected compared to the five-year average.

Likewise, there were 9,134 more deaths from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in private homes, an increase of 62.5 per cent, and 9,593 more deaths from cancers.

Commenting on the figures, the ONS said: “There is evidence that deaths due to causes other than Covid-19, usually expected to have occurred in hospitals were transposed to other places of occurrence, particularly private homes.”

Rise in non-Covid excess deaths

The new statistics also show there has been a worrying rise in non-Covid excess deaths in recent months, with May recording 15.4 per cent more deaths than the five-year average, while June experienced a rise of 8.6 per cent.

Of the 6,473 excess deaths in May, more than three-quarters – 4,897 or 76 per cent  – were not due to coronavirus while in June, 82 per cent were non-Covid.

The ONS said that many of the excess deaths this year were owing to cardiac arrhythmias, heart diseases and diabetes, as well as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan, the associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said that urgent research was needed to find out why so many more people were dying of heart problems.

“Far more people are now dying at home from cardiovascular causes than before the pandemic,” she said.

“Patients with heart disease continue to face delays to their vital care from delays in having heart surgery to long ambulance waits even for heart attacks and for life-threatening arrhythmia.

“This is a deeply concerning situation with devastating consequences that needs to be addressed urgently if we are to reduce avoidable deaths.”

She added: “We also need to understand whether the families of people who died of heart disease at home had access to the home-based support and care they needed.”

‘Mortality displacement’

Overall, there have been 3,848 excess deaths registered in England and Wales in the first half of 2022.

The ONS also said it was possible that there has been some “mortality displacement”, with the number of deaths higher than average now because of below-average deaths earlier in the year.

Sarah Caul, the head of mortality analysis at the ONS, said: “Excess deaths do fluctuate over time. And when looking at individual months in 2022, the number of deaths were below expected levels in January and February.”