Nuffield Trust: Home deaths account for as many excess deaths since start of the pandemic as deaths in care homes (16 September 2020)

Summary

Sarah Scobie, Deputy Director of Research at the Nuffield Trust, looks at the continued high numbers of people dying at home, even as hospital deaths return to close-to-average levels, and discusses what reasons might lie behind the continued high numbers of home deaths since the onset of the pandemic.

Whatever the reasons for the greater number of deaths at home, a third more people are now dying at home than prior to the pandemic. Although it is widely thought that many people prefer to die at home, this shift presents a significant challenge for community health and care services to deliver high quality care for patients, and to support families at the end of life.