Excess Deaths At Home

Lifelonfaninexile said:
Try and get an appointment with your G.P.
That explains it pretty much.
Charles Levinson knows fine well.
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Are people really struggling to get emergency GP appointments?

I know we can only confidently report our own circumstances but where I am there are no shortages of appointments if help is needed.
 
MolteniArcore said:
Are people really struggling to get emergency GP appointments?

I know we can only confidently report our own circumstances but where I am there are no shortages of appointments if help is needed.
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From personal experience:
Phone lines open at 8.00 whereupon you get engaged multiple times (42 in this case)
Eventually allocated a place in the queue.
20 mins later speak to receptionist with mantra "telephone consultations only"
Surgery is set aside for Flu jabs.
Proceed to A & E .
After much arguing see a doctor who then immediately admits my daughter.
 
Ingleby_Flash said:
Is it because people have been locked down in their homes, rather than dying when out and about as they would be pre-pandemic?
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I suspect its exactly this. If we have more hours at home there will be more deaths at home.

That's not too dismisses other factors such as depression or the inability to see your go.
 
I'm sure some of the above lack of health support may be a contribution, but it may not be the main cause. Every one of my wife's or my close relatives (aunts, uncles, parents) died at home. That happened because close relatives were able to provide the necessary palliative care. The link below says that 50 to 74% of people would prefer to die at home, although that figure reduces if there isn't home palliative care as their lives come to an end. 18% actually die at home. I was 'fortunate' not to have dying relatives in the last 18 months, but I would have done everything to keep a dying mother or father out of a hospital or care home through the pandemic.

Link
 
A confluence of factors, largely covid related, incuding:
- difficulty in contacting GPs
- difficulty in arranging face-to-face consultations
- increased hesitancy in patients re calling GP (they're very busy, don't want to bother them etc)
- fear of catching covid from GP and hospital visits
- increased waiting lists for hospital appointments as resources shifted to covid

All of the above delay diagnosis and treatment and therefore increase mortality. The figures will include people who, previously, would have been diagnosed and cured. They also include people who would have still died, but in hospital, rather than at home.

On a slightly more positive note, possibly related to Bear66's post above, WFH has allowed more people to receive palliative care, support etc from friends and relatives in home surroundings, obviating the need for hospitalisation.
 
JackG said:
A confluence of factors, largely covid related, incuding:
- difficulty in contacting GPs
- difficulty in arranging face-to-face consultations
- increased hesitancy in patients re calling GP (they're very busy, don't want to bother them etc)
- fear of catching covid from GP and hospital visits
- increased waiting lists for hospital appointments as resources shifted to covid

All of the above delay diagnosis and treatment and therefore increase mortality. The figures will include people who, previously, would have been diagnosed and cured. They also include people who would have still died, but in hospital, rather than at home.

On a slightly more positive note, possibly related to Bear66's post above, WFH has allowed more people to receive palliative care, support etc from friends and relatives in home surroundings, obviating the need for hospitalisation.
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There's a bit of discussion (without definitive conclusions) in the link below. It uses Scotland as an example of how their major causes of deaths from cancer, heart disease and strokes increased by 1% in 2020, but deaths at home for these causes increased by 36%. But it does raise the question not covered by statistics: did people die in fear of getting NHS support in their final days or did they receive loving care from their friends and relatives.

Link
 
Suspect letting Covid rip through the population has caused the inevitable huge backlog of treatments that the NHS just didn’t have capacity to complete on time has something to do with it.
Are those who were adamant that just getting on with it was the only solution, now realising the impacts of Covid are far more widespread than they ever wanted to believe?
 
My downstairs neighbours, young couple, 2 youngish children and a baby contracted COVID at the end of July. The baby had difficulty breathing and was suffering, when the woman contacted the emergency services they weren't interested in taking the baby to Hospital and said it would have to stay at home, as it turned out they all got through it, but pre pandemic they would have taken the baby into Hospital as a precautionary measure, now it's stay at home and hope that the clinician who has heard your symptoms over the phone gets it right.
 
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