Covid-19: a data picture from UK care homes

As a major supplier of clinical systems to care homes, we are helping give a real-time digital picture of the challenges caregivers are facing during the Covid-19 crisis.

Our technology records on average 50 care interactions per resident per day for 52,870 care home residents. We have therefore been able to work closely with thousands of UK care homes to provide them with daily benchmarking of the situation as it unfolds, using anonymised data.

Jonathan Papworth, co-founder and director of Person Centred Software, said: “The personal impact on families who have lost loved ones because of Covid-19 is devastating, no matter whether a death occurs in hospital, in the community or in a care home.

“Our anonymised data analysis of death rates in care homes, compared to normal seasonal trends over the past two years, indicates that there could have been more than 17,000 deaths among residents from Covid-19 since the beginning of April. While the majority of these deaths won’t have been certified as due to Covid-19 – due to lack of testing, among other factors – the virus is the most likely reason for such a significant rise in deaths.

“There is however a positive; from the real-time statistics it looks like deaths from Covid-19 in care homes may have reached a peak about a week ago. While everyone in the care industry knows there is no quick fix to the situation, it is heartening to see that death rates could be starting to gradually decline. It would not be right to try and predict what comes next, but a glimmer of hope is something that will mean a lot to the amazing carers who are helping some of the most vulnerable people in the country.

“We are committed to supporting the heroic work caregivers are doing. The aim of our benchmarking data has been to support the care industry with this real-time analysis, to supplement official figures the government is able to release.”

“As a technology provider to the care sector we support the work of the CQC, and are happy to make our data available.”

Our analysis has been featured in the Daily Telegraph today. Further media enquiries should be made to Heidi Thomas, Head of Marketing Person Centred Software, h.thomas@personcentredsoftware.com