UK Ministers Urged to Investigate Excess Deaths in Private Homes

Ambulances parked during a strike outside Waterloo ambulance station, London, on Dec. 21, 2022. Kirsty O'Connor/PA Media

Lawmakers in the House of Lords questioned the government on Tuesday over excess deaths in private homes, asking whether strains on the ambulance service and COVID-19 lockdowns have contributed to the number.

It comes after the Office for National Statistics (ONS) counted 4,107 deaths in private homes in England and Wales that were registered during week 51 last year, 37.5 percent higher than the five-year average for the same week.

According to The Epoch Times’ analysis of ONS provisional figures for England and Wales, in 2022, the number of weekly deaths in hospitals and care homes were largely below the five-year averages during the earlier months and increased later on, but private home deaths have remained higher than average throughout the year.

By Dec. 30, the number of deaths in care homes in 2022 was the same as the five-year average (2016–2019 and 2021). The number of deaths in hospitals was 1.57 percent above average, but private home deaths jumped by more than one-fifth, at 22.8 percent.

The ONS stressed that figures may be skewed for the first eight weeks as the baseline was higher than normal owing to a wave of COVID-19 deaths during those weeks in 2021.

Meanwhile, according to The Times of London and the BBC’s analyses of UK-wide data from the ONS, the National Records of Scotland, and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, more than 650,000 deaths were registered in 2022, with the highest excess deaths in the last 50 years apart from the pandemic years.

Baroness: ‘Considerable Alarm Bells’

Questioning a health minister over private home excess deaths in week 51, which ended on ending Dec. 23, Labour peer Baroness Merron said the spike “rings considerable alarm bells.”

Citing analysis suggesting “record ambulance and emergency delays” as a plausible explanation for the rise in sudden deaths at home, she asked the government to produce its own analysis investigating the potential causal link.

Labour’s Lord Allan of Hallam also asked the government to examine the pressures on ambulance services, while Conservative peers Lord Hannan of Kingsclere and Lord Dobbs questioned the role of COVID-19 lockdowns, during which hospital waiting lists grew to record lengths.

“Some of these numbers plainly reflect the diagnoses and the treatments that did not happen during the pandemic,” Hannan said.

“Given that we now know that the OECD [Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development] country with the lowest excess death figure during those two years was Sweden, does my noble friend the minister believe that, knowing what we now know, we would have locked down?” he questioned.

A man walks up a deserted Regent Street in London on March 30, 2020. Leon Neal/Getty Images

Responding to the questions, Lord Markham, minister at the Department of Health and Social Care, said, “While the detailed assessment is not yet available, it is likely that a combination of factors has contributed to an increase in the number of deaths at home, including high flu prevalence, the ongoing challenge of COVID-19, and health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.” He added that the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities will provide more updates on Thursday.

He also said that cardiovascular death is “the prime issue” the government is looking at in terms of excess deaths.

Many of the deaths occurred in private homes rather than in other settings “through personal choice, because it was happening over the summer and earlier in the year,” the minister said.

He added that according to England’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty, during summer last year, the heatwave was a factor, while at the moment “a lot of factors are in play,” including flu, an earlier cold snap that created more cardiovascular deaths, and challenges in the health services.

Commenting on the link between the strain on the ambulance service and the excess deaths at home, Markham said Whitty writes an annual report “exactly on this,” and that the government will be “doing so in the same way and looking at all the factors.”

Reacting to criticism of lockdowns, Markham told Dobbs the government had “learned lessons all the way through” and “were much more resistant to locking down as time went on,” and that he “totally agree[d]” the impact of the lockdowns needs to be “a key feature” in the public inquiry into COVID-19 led by Lady Hallett.

Backlogs, Strikes, and Others

Delayed diagnoses and treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic and overwhelmed hospital beds are widely believed to have contributed to the higher-than-usual death toll last year.

By the end of October, 6.95 million people referred for hospital treatment were on waiting lists, slightly down from 7.07 million in the previous month, which was the highest since records began in 2007, the latest National Health Service (NHS) statistics show.

When estimates for missing data are included, the number became 7.21 million, setting a new record high, according to the same NHS data set.

It’s also believed recent strikes by nurses and ambulance staff could result in some fatalities.

A health service worker draws up a dose of COVID-19 vaccine at a drive-through vaccination centre in Blackburn, England, on Jan. 17, 2022. Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images

Jamie Jenkins, former head of health analysis and labour market analysis at the ONS and one of the experts who have called on the government to investigate the matter for a number of months, previously told The Epoch Times that aging population may also be a contributing factor, while another advocate for an investigation into excess deaths, diagnostic pathologist Dr. Clare Craig, listed diabetes and psychological stress during the COVID-19 pandemic as other possible culprits.

They also mentioned adverse reactions (ADRs) to COVID-19 vaccines, which are known to be linked to myocarditis, pericarditis, and some other reactions.

The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has an ongoing evaluation of the vaccines’ safety data including the analysis of reports to the Yellow Card system—an early warning system for potential ADRs to medicines or medical devices.

In its latest update published last month, the MHRA counted 2,362 UK reports of suspected ADRs to COVID-19 vaccines in which the patients died after vaccination by Nov. 23, around 0.35 percent of all deaths during the year.

It’s unclear what proportion of possible ADRs are reported to the Yellow Card system.

In an email to The Epoch Times, a spokesperson for the MHRA said the reports do “not mean that there is a link between vaccination and the fatalities reported.”

“We continue to evaluate emerging safety information and will take action to protect public health if new safety concerns arise,” the statement reads.

“We closely review the Yellow Card reports submitted to us in the UK alongside safety data from other countries and regulators. We also work closely with our public health partners to evaluate data on the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines.”

The spokesperson encouraged the public to “continue to get their vaccination when invited to do so unless specifically advised otherwise” and report suspected side effects to its Coronavirus Yellow Card website.