Dementia Support Line
Alzheimer's Society responds to Care Quality Commission data on COVID-19 deaths provided by care homes
The Care Quality Commission has published data showing death notifications involving COVID-19 received from individual care homes between 10 April 2020 and 31 March 2021.
James White, Head of Public Affairs and Campaigns at Alzheimer’s Society, said:
'Every life lost to Covid-19 is a life too many.
'At the start of the pandemic, we saw multiple failures impacting care homes. As Covid-19 spread in the local community, we saw a lack of protection for care homes, which is why we expressed significant concerns early on about hospital discharge into care homes, testing and PPE supplies.
This heart-breaking new data shows the devastating and tragic consequences of those government failures.
'People with dementia have been worst hit by coronavirus, accounting for over a quarter of all deaths and many more having significantly deteriorated from lockdown’s knock-on effects. So many lives could have been saved if care homes got the support and resources they needed earlier on in the pandemic.
'The last 18 months has exposed the dire state of social care and the damage from decades of chronic underfunding. Yet this week we have seen social care reform delayed, again.
People with dementia are suffering as they endlessly wait for the care they need.
'We need the Government to honour their promise to fix social care with a clear, budgeted plan for reform.'
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