Data on deaths in mental health and learning disability units will now be published, NHS announces

The NHS will this week begin to publish the numbers of people who are dying from coronavirus in mental health and learning disability units, the government has announced.

England's national medical director Stephen Powis told the Downing Street daily press briefing that the figures would be published on an "ongoing basis" after calls to paint a clearer picture of the problem.

It comes as figures from the Care Quality Commission showed a sharp increase in deaths among mental health patients compared to last year.

Asked by The Independent whether the numbers could be made public, he replied: "Yes, I can commit that we will publish that data.

"We've been looking at how we can do that; we publish deaths daily, we're looking at how we can report on those groups and I can commit that from next week we'll be publishing data on learning disabilities, autism, and mental health patients who have died in acute hospitals and we will do that on an ongoing basis."

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Source: The Independent, 9 May 2020