Of that total, 80% died of conditions unrelated to Covid-19, according to their death certificates. Doctors' leaders have warned that fears and deprioritisation of non-coronavirus patients are taking a deadly toll.
The data shows 8,196 more deaths at home in England, Wales and Scotland compared with the five-year average for this time of year, including 6,546 non-Covid deaths. It also indicates a drop in non-Covid deaths in hospital, however, leading experts to conclude that many who would ordinarily have been admitted to a ward and died there are instead dying at home.
Jason Oke, a statistician with the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford, said: "This would mean fewer deaths from other causes in hospitals and more deaths from other causes at home or in care homes. It is of course possible that, in addition to this, Covid-19 is being missed in people who remain outside of hospital.
"A third explanation is that people are dying of other causes that would not have happened under normal conditions - and are collateral damage of the lockdown." He added that there was no way of knowing for sure based on the available data.
Doctors' leaders have warned that some sick people are too scared to go to hospital and are aware that much of the usual NHS care had been suspended in the pandemic. "These figures underline that the devastation wrought by Covid-19 spreads far beyond the immediate effects of the illness itself," said Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the council chair of the British Medical Association.
"While all parts of the NHS have rallied round in a bid to meet the immediate rocketing demand caused by the pandemic, more than half of doctors in a recent BMA survey have told us that this is worsening the care of non-Covid patients."
He cited a fall in A&E visits of up to 50% and a drop by half of patients attending hospitals with heart attacks....<<<Read The Full Article Here>>>...
