| Practice area: | Public Policy | Social care |
|---|---|
| Client: | N/A |
| Published: | 29 August, 2020 |
| Keywords: | quantitative analysis |
This report, authored by researchers from London Economics / LE Wales and other institutions across the UK, provides a comparison of the impacts of COVID-19 on the long term care sector across the four UK nations. It provides an up to date estimate of the size of the adult care home sector across the UK and assembles the limited information that is available on delayed transfers of care and testing of care home residents, both of which played a role in the evolution and consequences of the pandemic. The report also provides estimates of the number and share (the P-Score) of “excess deaths” in care homes in each of the home nations and compares the proportions of care homes in each of the home nations that experienced a COVID-19 infection.
The paper also discusses deaths of care home residents outside care homes, largely in hospitals and reviews the sparse information on deaths at home of people who were receiving social care. Several data gaps limit our ability to offer a full account of the impact of COVID-19 within the LTC system. Most notable are the gaps surrounding care at home including data on unpaid carers and individuals’ choices over purchasing care; accurate and timely data on transfers of patients from hospital and into care homes; reliable data on testing of residents and staff and infection rates in the care home local area; and care home level COVID-19 related mortality data.
The report can be downloaded here.
Other LE COVID-19 publications are available here.