Care home deaths: What does geography tell us about the impact of Covid-19?
The Covid-19 pandemic inside England’s care homes has consistently seen lack of PPE and underlying health conditions centred as key issues.
What can the geography behind data on care home deaths tell us though?
How do care home deaths across England compare?
Care home deaths per 10,000 general population v per 10,000 over 65
East Suffolk had the highest number of care home deaths per 10,000.
Yet the local authority’s number of deaths paled in comparison to central parts of the UK, when they were accounted for the population over 65, according to ONS data.
Coastal areas including Cornwall were missing from the top 3% of areas in England for care home deaths per 10,000, despite having one of the highest raw number of deaths overall and one of the highest populations in the UK.
Yet London boroughs consistently ranked lowest for the number of deaths per 10,000 and additionally, over 65.
Tower Hamlets is notable for having the least care home deaths per 10,000 while upholding one of the highest deprivation rates, according to the English Indices of Deprivation 2019.
Deprivation and Inequality
Statistics on the number of deaths per 10,000 and over 65 specifically, highlighted that Middlesbrough scored highest out of all England local authorities.
The local authority appeared in the lowest 25th percentile of data ranking UK neighbourhoods’ income scales.
Half of all neighbourhoods classed as the ten most deprived in the 2019 English indices of deprivation, featured in the top 50th percentile of data showing the number of deaths per 10,000 and over 65.
Overall, ONS data showed Birmingham ranked highest for the number of deaths inside care homes and hospitals registered during the week of 9th May. Bradford, Leeds featured in the top 10 locations for care home deaths.
These local authorities were ranked in the five districts in England with the lowest income scale by the English Indices of Deprivation 2019.
Less densely populated local authorities including West Oxfordshire and Mid Sussex dominated the twenty locations with the highest number of deaths per 10,000 and additionally, over 65.
These two areas appeared alongside affluent neighbourhoods, including Surrey Heath and Cheltenham — a local authority with one of the fastest growing death rates across the country, overtaken by Watford in the week ending 9th May 2020.
The fastest growing death tolls V England
This line graph highlights how the three local authorities’ respective death tolls compared with the median, East Riding of Yorkshire and the three London boroughs with the lowest death tolls per 10,000 over 65 from 3rd January 2020–9th May 2020.
